


To See With Eyes Unclouded

by mikkimouse



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Movie Fusion, Alternate Universe - Princess Mononoke Fusion, Anal Sex, BAMF Stiles, Bottom Stiles Stilinski, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Frottage, M/M, Past Character Death, Wolf!Boyd, fox!kira, wolf!Erica
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-18
Updated: 2015-08-18
Packaged: 2018-04-15 08:31:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 47,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4599945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikkimouse/pseuds/mikkimouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cursed by a dying god, Derek seeks help from the great wolf Satomi. She lifts the curse with a Bite, but Derek can never leave the forest, lest the curse return.</p>
<p>Taken in by Satomi's small pack, Derek finds himself learning more about the forest and navigating an antagonistic relationship with Stiles, Satomi's only human child.</p>
<p>But darkness encroaches at their borders as the humans of Irontown delve deeper into the forest in their quest for iron, and the bad blood between the wolves and the humans threatens to breach the point of no return.</p>
<p>And Derek may well be the only one who can pull them back from the brink.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Holy moly, this fic has been my life for the past two and a half months. I'm still shocked I managed to keep it under 50k because it _exploded_. 
> 
> This was inspired by the absolutely fucking amazing artwork is by the incomparable [tsuminoaru](http://tsumi-noaru.tumblr.com/). Princess Mononoke is one of my favorite Studio Ghibli films, and so working on this was just so much fun. You can view the art [on Tumblr here](http://tsumi-noaru.tumblr.com/post/127079878049/to-see-with-eyes-unclouded-by-mad-madam-m-stiles).
> 
> Thanks to Jess, [domesticated-chaos](http://domesticated-chaos.tumblr.com/), [bleep0bleep](http://bleep0bleep.tumblr.com/), [fauvistfly](http://fauvistfly.tumblr.com/), and [joanaabroad](http://joanaabroad.tumblr.com/) for the beta read, and to my lovely band of Sterekers for being the most wonderful and encouraging support group a writer could ask for. This fic would not exist without your constant, loving support. 
> 
> As always, if there are any tags I've missed, let me know and I'll add them.
> 
> If you're curious re: the character death, please see the end notes.

Hoofbeats pounded at the ground, filling the night air. Wind whipped past, cold and cutting, and Derek pressed his face into Laura's shoulder to protect it.

His right arm throbbed and the skin wiggled under his hand, bulging grotesquely under his shirtsleeve. Rage blackened his mind, anger that he'd been cursed like this, the overwhelming desire to take _revenge_ suffusing every single inch of him.

Derek forced himself to breathe, to remember that these were his sisters. This curse affected them, too. He wasn't going to give into it. He could fight this. He _would_ fight this.

He tightened his grip on his cursed arm, and the odd bulging finally quieted. For now, at least.

Their red elks tore across the ground toward the great forest, and though he couldn't see her face, Derek could feel the tension in Laura's shoulders, in the way her breaths came short and shallow.

After an eternity, they reached a rocky outcropping near the edge of the forest, looming tall and dark and foreign over them. Laura dismounted first and strode toward the trees, but Cora stayed back to help Derek off the elk.

"How is your arm?" she asked, voice tight.

Derek tried to smile. It was likely not as reassuring as he hoped it would be. "It's fine. I promise."

Cora smiled tremulously. "You're a terrible liar."

In front of them, Laura spread her arms before the forest and raised her voice. "Great god of the wolves, Satomi! I am Laura, daughter of Talia, daughter of Anna, daughter of Julia, of the Red Mountain tribe. And I come to you to ask for your help!"

The wind whistled through the trees, but as far as Derek could tell, no one responded. The great forest gave no reaction aside from the hoot of a few birds.

His arm throbbed again, a sharp pain this time, and Derek grunted.

Cora wrapped her arm around him, giving him support. "It's all right, Derek. She'll come. She always came when Mother needed help. She'll come now."

There was nothing he could say in response, so he rested his head on top of his little sister's.

"Satomi!" Laura yelled again, and again nothing happened.

She wasn't going to come. Derek swallowed the fear and disappointment tightening his throat. If she didn't come, they would figure something out. They always did.

And if the solution was his own death, well, Derek would welcome it. If it meant he could protect his sisters, he would welcome anything.

"I seek Satomi, great god of the wolves! In honor of our families' past bond, I beg you to heed my call!" Laura called again, voice cracking on the last words.

Derek leaned on Cora and fixed his eyes on the dark, silent woods stretching before them. He listened for a howl, the rustling of leaves, anything that would indicate that the god would answer them, but the forest remained quiet and impassive.

She truly would not come. She would abandon them—abandon him—when they needed her the most.

_Filthy, arrogant bitch! And you call yourself a god._

The steady throbbing in his arm twisted, a thousand needles jabbing into his skin, and Derek cried out.

Instantly, Laura was at his side, and she and Cora helped him sit on one of the rocks. Laura pulled the waterskin off her elk's saddle and rolled up Derek's sleeve, pouring it over the angry black lines that wrapped around his arm.

It did not douse the pain entirely, but it did ease it, and lessened the rage-filled voice in his head.

"Thank you," Derek said when he could speak again.

Laura's pale eyes glittered with tears and determination, and she swiped at her face. "It's all right. We don't need her. We'll head back to the village—"

Derek shook his head. "We can't. They...you know they'll shoot me on sight."

"They can't!" Cora cried. "You were injured saving us, saving _them_. They can't cast you out for it!"

He rolled his sleeve back down his arm and pulled out a bowstring to better bind the cloth. "If it were anyone else, we would be doing the same thing. You two go back, I'll be fine here."

" _No._ " Laura shook her head fiercely. "We're not leaving you."

"Our village needs its priestesses," Derek argued.

"And they need their prince!" Laura snapped back. "I promised I would take care of you, and I will."

"We promised we would take care of each _other_ ," Cora corrected, tightening her grip on Derek's shoulder. "And that means we're not leaving you out here."

"Well, what have we here?"

The new voice sounded like thunder, like a landslide, like it came from the very core of nature itself.

Derek jumped to his feet, his sisters still on either side of him. Standing atop one of the boulders closer to the forest was the largest white wolf he'd ever seen, so huge she could easily swallow any one of them whole. She radiated power, so much that the air fairly thrummed with it, and Derek had the overwhelming urge to kneel.

Laura stepped in front of him and did just that, bowing her head as she knelt. "Satomi, great god of the wolves, you grace us with your presence."

Satomi leapt off the boulder and landed far more lightly than an animal of her size should have. "Children of Talia, daughter of Anna, daughter of Julia, what brings you to my forest, invoking the bond of our families?"

"Our village was attacked by a god gone mad," Laura said. "An iron bullet turned her into a demon, and in her rage, she cursed our brother. He will die if we don't do something."

Satomi's giant head swung from Laura to Derek, her ancient eyes pinning him where he stood. "And you wish for me to cure him?"

"Please!" Cora burst out.

Laura threw a glare over her shoulder, a look that meant _be quiet_ , and then turned back to Satomi. "Our mother spoke highly of you, of your power and mercy. Please, if there is anything you can do to help, we would be in your debt."

Satomi raised her head and sniffed, and then her heavy gaze landed on Derek once again. "The curse of iron is a potent one. My own power is diminished outside the borders of the forest, and the humans in Irontown encroach further every day."

She said _humans_ as though it were a disgusting word, and Derek flinched at her tone.

"Is there nothing you can do?" he asked.

He swore Satomi grinned. "Now, I did not say that, human pup." She circled them once, and then sat on her haunches in front of them once more. "In honor of my bond with your foremothers, I can offer you a portion of my power." She snapped her jaws. "With the Bite."

Derek stiffened, and he felt Cora draw closer to him. "What does that mean?"

"If the Bite takes, then you will become part wolf. The magic of my clan will keep your curse at bay...as long as you are within the borders of the forest, that is. Outside of the forest, my power will not be able to protect you for long. That curse is too strong."

" _If_ the Bite takes?" Laura asked, her voice tense.

"Yes," Satomi said. "Not all humans are strong enough to survive it."

"So," Derek swallowed before he continued, "I die from this curse, I die from your Bite, or I survive and can never leave the forest."

Satomi was grinning again. "Indeed. You are a quick one."

Involuntarily, Derek clenched Cora's cloak in his fist. Two choices before him, and the one meant to save his life had an equal chance of ending it. This was not a decision he wanted to make.

Laura finally stood and bowed. "May we discuss your kind offer amongst ourselves?"

Satomi shrugged. "Discuss as long as you wish. I am not the one with a lack of time."

With that, she hopped back up on one of the boulders and lay down.

Laura brushed off her dress and turned back to Derek. "You already know what I'm going to say."

He nodded.

"But it could _kill you_ ," Cora whispered harshly.

"Then you would rather him waste away in agony?" Laura snapped.

" _Laura_ ," Derek said sternly.

She clapped her mouth shut, but her gaze was no less fierce. "I do not like the options either, but given the choice, I would pick the path where I know you live."

"Even if it means never seeing me again?" Derek asked.

"No! We can...we can still visit some, can't we?" Cora said.

Laura's mouth tweaked at the corner, the hint of a bittersweet smile. "You know the laws, Cora, archaic as they may be." She turned back to Derek. "If you die, I'll never see you again. At least this way, I know there's a chance."

And really, Derek couldn't argue with that. If he did nothing, he would die soon regardless. If he took the Bite and it didn't take, at least death would be much faster and less painful.

He tried to smile, but it was too hard to make his lips curve the way they should. "Then there isn't much choice, is there?"

Cora pressed her trembling lips together, and then threw her arms around him in a hug. Derek hugged her back, and then he felt Laura wrap her arms around them both. He closed his eyes and breathed in, impressing this moment in his memory. He had no idea if he'd ever see his sisters again after this night.

Together they stood and walked to Satomi, who likely heard them coming but didn't even lift her head. Derek took a deep breath to calm his nerves and steady his voice before he spoke. "I accept your offer."

Satomi raised her head, and then jumped down from the boulder. "As you wish, son of Talia." She gestured toward the forest with her massive head. "Come. We must perform the ritual before sunrise, and we must be within the borders of the forest when we do." She eyed Cora and Laura. "I imagine you will want to come as well?"

Laura nodded firmly. "Just until we know if it's successful."

Derek hesitated. He was happy to have his sisters with him, but... "You need to be back at the village by dawn."

Laura met his eyes with a steely gaze of her own. "We'll stay."

"Then quit bickering and come," Satomi said, and started toward the forest without waiting for them.

Derek's arm throbbed harder with each step he took, the pain making sweat trickle down his back and neck. He shivered with each gust of cold wind plastering his clothes to his body, and clenched his fist.

Soon. Soon this would be over, one way or another.

The trees of the forest stretched high over their heads, impossibly ancient, with trunks so thick Derek wasn't sure the three of them could encircle one and still be able to touch hands. As soon as they passed under the branches, the world dimmed and the sound of it changed. The wind quieted, and the soft noises of life took its place.

Something rattled near his head, and Derek startled to see a small white creature with a large head sitting on a branch, staring at him with empty black eyes. It slowly tilted its head to one side, and then snapped it back upright with a rattling sound.

_Kodama_. Derek had heard of the tree spirits of the great forest from his mother, but he'd never seen one. He truly _was_ stepping into another world now.

They followed Satomi into a moonlit clearing, where the branches of the trees were just thin enough to let light shine through.

"Are you ready, son of Talia?" Satomi asked.

Derek nodded and squeezed his sisters' hands once more before stepping forward. "I am."

"Then remove your shirt."

Derek did, unbinding his arm and wincing at the rush of pain. The angry voice surged in his mind, harsh and cruel, and he had to fight to keep from reacting to it.

Before he could blink, Satomi was next to him, her huge head under his arm and massive teeth sinking into his side. She released him and was on the other side of the clearing before Derek even felt the pain from the bite.

He cursed and dropped to his knees, completely forgetting about the pain in his arm as his side felt like it was on _fire_. His hands flew to the wound in a vain effort to staunch the blood.

In an instant, Cora and Laura were next to him, Laura moving his hand and pressing her cloak to his side. "Cora, here, put pressure on it." She snapped her head up to glare at Satomi. "You call this a ritual?"

Satomi cocked her head to one side. "I said I would bite him. Your language has not changed _that_ much over the years, daughter of Talia."

Derek shook his head and hoped that indicated to Laura to leave it alone. "It's all right. At least my arm hurts less."

Cora swatted him on the shoulder, but he caught the way her lips twitched up in the barest of smiles.

"How soon will we know?" Laura asked.

"Take away that cloak and see."

Laura hesitated, but Derek nodded. If he was to be doomed, he'd like to know sooner rather than later.

Cora and Laura pulled the cloak away, the fabric tugging at the blood drying sticky against his skin, and Derek hissed at the tenderness of the wound. But that was just it, tenderness. The blood had slowed to a seeping, and the smaller teeth marks had already scabbed over and started to heal.

Derek shoved back his sleeve. The black wound on his arm was shrinking as well.

"Congratulations," Satomi said. "It appears the son of Talia is strong enough to survive."

Derek let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. He wasn't going to die.

He was, however, trapped in this forest.

Laura sighed and sagged against him, saying nothing but inhaling shaky breaths. If Derek didn't know better, he might have thought her crying.

He hugged both his sisters to him and closed his eyes, as if that might prevent the moment he knew was coming.

"Dawn approaches," Satomi said, her deep voice breaking the silence of the forest. "If you must return to your village, you ought to leave soon."

Laura nodded and sat back, wiping at her eyes. She smiled unsteadily at Derek. "You'll live," she whispered. "So can I."

Derek dragged her into another hug. He didn't know what to say, except... "I'll miss you."

Laura squeezed him and stood. "I'll miss you too."

Cora rubbed her face in her cloak and stood up as well. "We'll come back. We'll see you again," she said, her voice sharp with finality.

Derek found it in him to smile. "I look forward to it. Now hurry. You have to get back."

Cora and Laura helped Derek up, and then Cora dug under her shirt and pulled out the crystal dagger she always kept around her neck. She yanked it over her head and handed it to Derek. "Here."

Derek took it, even as he protested, "Cora, I can't take your dagger, you—"

"Take it," she said, more forcefully. "I want you to have something to remember me by. I don't...I don't want you to forget."

Derek tucked the dagger into his pocket and pulled her and Laura into another hug. "How could I ever forget either of you?"

They stayed there a moment longer, the three of them linked, an unbreakable unit, the way they had been ever since their parents had died. The idea of going more than a few days without seeing his sisters was unthinkable. But now...

Laura cleared her throat and broke the hug first. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but closed it and smiled at Derek instead.

He understood anyway.

Without another word, Laura took Cora's hand and led her back out of the clearing and through the forest. Derek watched them go, staring after them as long as he could. Far too soon, they disappeared from view, swallowed up by the trees.

He kept watching, though, until he knew in the marrow of his bones that they had left the borders of the forest. For the first time in his life, Derek felt horribly alone.

"Come, son of Talia," Satomi said from behind him.

With one last look over his shoulder, Derek turned away from his former life to follow her into his new one.


	2. Chapter 2

At some point during their journey, the pain from the bite suddenly spiked, bringing Derek to his knees. With an annoyed huff, Satomi tossed him onto her back, and Derek passed out, surrounded by the softness of her fur. 

He was sensible only in snatches of time. He blinked, and the forest was grey with dawn's light. Another blink, and he was looking up at trees, a white mist crowding at the edge of his vision and the sound of water lapping nearby. He blinked again, and there was a woman with long dark hair kneeling over him, a kind smile on her face as she brushed his hair from his forehead. 

"You'll do nicely," she murmured. 

Derek wanted to ask what she meant, but his mouth wouldn't open, and he fell asleep once more. 

The next time he opened his eyes, he was lying on his back on a bed of grass, an animal skin blanket thrown over him. No sooner had he cracked open his eyes than the sunlight seared them, and Derek threw his arm over his face. Smells assaulted him, a thousand new ones demanding his attention, so potent they made his head ache. The sounds were just as bad, scratches and thuds and howls and fluttering and rattling, a cacophony that surrounded his head and only got louder with each passing moment. 

Great gods of the forest, he hadn't known the Bite would bring this kind of misery. At least the pain was gone from his arm. 

He covered his ears and turned over to bury his face in the grass, because even if it smelled potent, it was still only one smell, drowning out the others. He tried to do the same thing with his hearing, pick out only one sound to focus on, but there were just too many, too—

Something jabbed him sharply in the side. "What's wrong with you?" 

Derek jerked and swatted at whatever—whoever—it was. The voice was too young to be Satomi's, and it sounded male, so it wasn't the woman he'd seen. 

"Do all humans sound that terrible when they first wake up?" the voice asked, and then its owner poked him again. "I don't know why Mother left you with me, it's not like _I_ know anything about stupid humans, I—"

Derek reached out blindly and closed his hand around a wrist, stopping it before he was poked yet again. 

The wrist yanked out of his grasp, and Derek heard a scrambling noise. He made himself sit up and slowly open his eyes, giving them a chance to adjust to the light. His headache subsided, and his vision finally cleared enough that he could see just who had been bothering him. 

A young man with messy brown hair crouched on a nearby rock. His face was painted with a long, red triangle under each eye and a smaller one in the center of his forehead. He wore a necklace of claws and a cloak of white fur, and his pale skin was otherwise bare to the sun but for a dark blue loincloth around his hips. 

Derek rubbed his eyes, to remind himself that he wasn't seeing things. He'd expected more wolves, not another human, and certainly not someone who looked to be only a few years younger than him, if that. "Who are you?"

The man cocked his head to the side and made a face. "Stiles. I'm the one who got stuck watching out for you."

Derek frowned. "I didn't know there were any humans living in the forest." 

"There aren't," Stiles said harshly. "Except you." 

Derek was taken aback at his tone. "But you're—"

Stiles growled. "I'm a _wolf_."

Derek wasn't entirely sure what to say to that. 

Stiles reached into a pouch at his side and pulled out a piece of dried meat. The smell of it hit Derek right before Stiles threw it at him, and he had to scramble to catch it. 

Stiles settled back on the rock, looking rather pleased with himself. "There. Eat up." 

Derek glared, but his stomach chose then to remind him he hadn't eaten since yesterday at the earliest. He chewed on the end of the meat and frowned up at the trees. It was difficult to tell where the sun was through the branches, but Derek thought it might have been midafternoon. "How long have I been here?" 

"Two days." 

Derek choked on the meat. "Two _days?_ I've been asleep for two days?"

Stiles rocked from side to side and nodded. "Two long days where you've done nothing but lay there like a log and I have to stay here and watch you while the others protect our borders." 

For the first time, Derek actually looked around. He and Stiles were alone in a little clearing, quiet and peaceful and brimming with magic. "Others?" 

Stiles snorted. "You don't know anything, do you?"

"I was a little preoccupied with _dying_ before I came here," Derek snapped. "I apologize that I didn't think to ask more questions."

Stiles huffed and scratched his head. "Boyd and Erica. You'll meet them when they return." 

"Where did they go?" Derek asked. 

Stiles shrugged, and dropped from his crouch so he was sitting on the rock, long legs dangling off. "Southeast, I think. It's where the trees are crying loudest. Can you hear them?" 

"Hear the trees?" Derek repeated, certain he'd misheard. "Trees can talk?" 

Stiles looked at him like he was an utter fool. "Of course they speak. I'm not surprised you don't know how to listen." He crossed his arms and grumbled under his breath, "Stupid humans." 

"Why do you hate humans so much?" 

"Why don't you?" Stiles countered, his sharp eyes fixing on Derek. "Mother told me of your wound, why you came to her. Cursed by a dying god, wasn't it? Tell me, did they find an iron bullet in the corpse?" He held up a fist. "About this big?" 

Derek stiffened. He couldn't know that, it was impossible; they hadn't told Satomi about that...had they?

Stiles rolled his eyes and chuckled darkly. "Iron bullets from Irontown. The humans there destroy everything they touch. You want to blame anyone for this, you should blame them."

Derek felt suddenly cold, despite the warmth of the clearing. "This has happened before?" 

Stiles nodded gravely. "The bullets are poison. In the breast of a god they rot, and they run berserk through the forest until they die or something else kills them. As you've seen." 

"The boar nearly destroyed our village," Derek said. " _Would_ have, if my sisters and I hadn't—"

He cut himself off, because even though the deed was done, he wasn't sure how the forest would react to him openly admitting to killing a god. Derek took a deep breath to calm himself, though it did little good. "You mean this," he gestured to himself, "could happen again? Could happen to other people?" 

Others, perhaps from smaller villages without priestesses or from families with no connection to the forest. Other people who would have no other recourse, would be forced to live their remaining days with a pain Derek had only experienced for less than half of one. 

"I doubt Mother would make many more humans members of the wolf tribe," Stiles said. 

That wasn't what he'd meant, but it didn't matter anyway. "They can't do this," Derek said. "They have to know what it does!" 

Stiles scoffed. "As if they care about anything but their precious iron. They'd burn this entire forest if it would get them one more scrap of it."

Derek shook his head. He couldn't let this happen to anyone else; he _couldn't_. "We have to stop them. If we could just talk to them, maybe—" 

Stiles let out a harsh, mirthless laugh. "Talk to them? And just how do you propose to do that? Will you waltz up to the wooden walls of Irontown and demand to speak to Lady Victoria? You can't, because you can't even leave the borders of this forest. And the only time they come here is to burn things down and dig up the mountain. And that's assuming they'd listen to you, which they wouldn't."

Derek's hackles rose at the dismissive words. "You don't know that. You can't know that." 

Stiles sprang off his rock and landed next to him, uncomfortably close. " _I_ can't know? Had you ever been outside of your little village before you came to Mother for help? You don't know anything of Irontown or the humans there. They don't listen to anyone." 

"So you've actually _tried_ talking to them?" Derek asked. Somehow, he highly doubted it. 

Stiles's lips thinned and all the angles of him seemed to go sharper, his amber eyes burning into Derek's. "I haven't," he said in a low, tight voice, "but I know someone who did. Someone who thought she could make peace between the humans and the forest. Lady Victoria killed her for it." 

Derek fought not to shrink away from the barely contained anger practically vibrating off Stiles's skin. He was dimly aware of the magic in the air changing; even the plants around him seemed to stiffen and hiss, seeking a target for their fury. 

"So _no_ , human." Stiles spat the word, and leapt back up onto the rock. "I haven't tried talking."

Derek wanted to ask who they'd killed, what she'd been to Stiles. But even he could see when a topic was too close to the heart to discuss. "Derek," he said instead. 

Stiles frowned and cocked his head. "What?" 

"My name is Derek. Since I'm no longer 'human,' you might as well use it." 

"Hmph." Stiles stuck his nose in the air. "You're still a human as far as I'm concerned." 

Derek felt a growl build in the back of his throat. This boy was _infuriating_. "Then what do I need to do to be a wolf?" 

Stiles grinned sharply. "Oh, you'll see." 

Before Derek could ask what he meant, Stiles bounded off the rock to the trunk of the nearest tree, scrambled into the branches, and vanished.

***

Apparently Satomi had only asked Stiles to stay with Derek until he was awake, because Derek didn't see him for the rest of the afternoon. 

Without Stiles there to give him something to focus on, the strength of his senses came back with a vengeance. Derek closed his eyes and breathed shallowly, first forcing himself to think only about what he could hear, then only about what he could smell. He wasn't sure how long he sat there, fighting with himself, but eventually he could open his eyes again and not feel overwhelmed. 

Slowly, he stood, his legs weak as a newborn foal's. His stomach rumbled again, and he found Stiles's pouch of meat and took a few more strips to eat before he went exploring. 

He'd assumed correctly that he was in a clearing in the forest, but he actually stood on an island in the center of a deep, still pond. Other grass-covered islands dotted the surface of the water around him, as well as a few trees. Even though the pond wasn't small, the forest was larger, and the branches from the trees surrounding the banks were large enough to keep most of the area in shade. The air here felt heavier than normal, reverent, and Derek had a feeling this wasn't where the wolves normally stayed. He wondered if Satomi had brought him here to heal. This seemed like the place for it. 

There wasn't anything on the island aside from a rock, Derek's bed, and the tree Stiles had climbed, so Derek stripped off his clothes and swam to the shore, holding his clothes on his head to keep them mostly dry. Thus far, he hadn't seen hide or hair of Stiles or Satomi or "the others," whoever they were. It seemed like the only other living beings in the forest were birds, bugs, rabbits, and the occasional kodama, who hung off tree branches and peered curiously at Derek before rattling their heads and fading back into their trees. 

It was strange to be so alone. Even if he'd sometimes preferred it back in the village, someone was always around—Laura and Cora, or someone needing help with something or just dropping off food or a borrowed jar or an animal for trade. Here, if Stiles could be believed, they were the only two humans around for miles. 

Idly, he rubbed his arm, where the angry black mark of the curse had disappeared completely, just as Satomi had promised. He would, indeed, live. 

Unbidden, his thoughts returned to his conversation with Stiles and the bullets from Irontown. How adamant Stiles had been that they wouldn't listen. 

He was right; Derek had little experience with people outside his own village. And the wolves had every right to protect and defend their territory as they needed. But he hated the thought of needless death, the way he could see the cycle continuing unless someone stepped in. 

Derek scrubbed his hands through his hair and groaned. His mother had been the diplomatic one, a trait that only Laura had inherited. Derek knew logically when one needed to use words to accomplish something, but it often fell beyond him as to _how_ he was supposed to use them. 

He could practically hear his mother's voice in the back of his head, quiet and insistent. 

_You can't let this happen to anyone else. You have to find a way to stop the fighting and make peace before they create demons out of every god in the forest._

Derek wanted to ask her how, wanted to know what _he_ was supposed to do when he was stuck within the borders of the forest, but the only thing he felt was the urging that he needed to do _something_. Details on what, exactly, remained vague. 

"What are you still doing here?" 

Derek spun and crouched into a defensive position, instinctively reaching for his knife before remembering he didn't have it. Stiles stood behind him, brow furrowed and head cocked to one side. 

Derek slowly straightened. "I didn't realize there was somewhere else I had to be." 

Stiles's frown only deepened, and he took a step closer, his amber eyes raking over Derek. "Where are your clothes?" 

_Oh_. Heat suffused his entire body, and Derek grabbed for the pile of clothes he'd forgotten to put back on after his swim. He yanked on his pants, his face burning as he did. "I had to swim to get off the island. I didn't want to get them wet."

"You were supposed to follow me," Stiles said. Apparently his interest in Derek's lack of clothing had vanished as soon as said clothes were back on. 

Derek pulled his shirt over his head. "You didn't say I was to follow you." 

Stiles widened his eyes innocently. "Didn't I?" 

No, he most certainly had _not_. Derek crossed his arms over his chest and glared. 

Stiles, however, wasn't cowed in the least. He smiled cheekily and leaned back against a tree. "Must have slipped my mind. Still, you could have followed the scent back to the den." 

Derek wanted to grind his teeth. "What scent?" 

"Mine? Mother's? One of the others?" 

Derek clenched his fists a few times to keep from lunging at Stiles. "I smell a thousand things in this forest and can barely separate one from another. How am I to know _yours_ well enough to follow it?" 

Stiles pushed himself off the tree. "Well, I suppose that can be your first lesson." He held out his arm. "Smell me." 

Derek blinked. Surely he'd heard wrong. "What?" 

Stiles waved his hand. "You need to learn how to track by scent. This is how you start."

Still skeptical, Derek bent forward, nose close to Stiles's hand, and breathed in deep. 

He didn't have words to describe the scent he inhaled. It was as warm and rich as the forest on a summer day, tinged with salt and rain. It was bright and familiar, like bread baking in the hearth. It was fresh and green, like new grass in the springtime. 

It was a hundred different things all together, and Derek wanted more. He wanted nothing more than to breathe in this scent for the rest of his life, and—

"Derek."

He blinked at the strangled sound of his name, and Derek realized he was no longer bent over Stiles's hand, but instead had him crowded against a tree, nose pressed to Stiles's neck. An unsteady _ba-thump, ba-thump_ filled his ears, and it took Derek a moment to understand where it was coming from. 

He straightened, but couldn't bring himself to move away any farther. "I can hear your heartbeat."

_Ba-thump ba-thump ba-thump_. Stiles looked like he was trying to shrink into the tree. "Good for you. Now move, so we can go home."

Derek made himself take one step back, and then another. Some new part of him whined at pulling away from Stiles, at the loss of that tantalizing scent. However, Stiles's heartbeat slowed as Derek moved away. 

_He's afraid of you_ , his mind helpfully informed him. Derek clenched his teeth against a growl. 

Stiles stared at him, wide-eyed, for another moment before his face slid back into a smile. "Think you can keep up, human?" 

Before Derek could correct him, Stiles took off through the forest, his bare feet scarcely touching the ground. 

Derek inhaled deeply, noted the scent, and followed.


	3. Chapter 3

He was convinced Stiles took him on the most roundabout path from the pond to the den. He'd lost count of the number of times they'd doubled back, and Derek was sure they'd gone in a full circle at least twice. This had to be some kind of punishment, probably because of the scenting thing. He wondered if he'd broken some unstated rule by getting that close to Stiles, smelling his neck instead of his hand. 

There wasn't anything he could do about it now except apologize. As soon as he _saw_ Stiles again, of course. 

Because even though Derek was reasonably sure he was faster than Stiles and he never lost track of the scent, he didn't see him once during their entire jaunt through the woods. He was either very fast or very good at hiding. Likely both. 

Finally, Derek smelled other scents alongside Stiles's, vastly different but all with a similar note. He stopped where he was, trying to identify what it was that made them same-but-different, but after a few moments, he gave up and just followed them.

The trail led him up a hill to a cave with a triangle-shaped entrance formed by two giant grey rocks leaning against each other and a third slab perched on top. Satomi sprawled on the top slab, massive head resting on her forepaws and two white tails twitching against the stone. Stiles lay in the grass in front of the cave, playing with two other white wolves Derek might have called "big" if he hadn't met Satomi first. 

The whole area smelled of home and family and wolves, and an overpowering wave of homesickness hit him. He missed Laura and Cora so much it staggered him, and he had to rest his hand on a nearby tree to stay upright. 

Satomi raised her head at his approach and snorted. "I see you've finally joined us, son of Talia."

Derek waited another second until his legs could carry him, and then walked toward her. "Tracking by scent isn't as easy as it sounds."

If Satomi could read his homesickness, she gave no indication of it. She flicked one of her tails at him. "You appear to have healed well. Come up here."

_Here_ , of course, being the stone slab on top of the cave. Derek eyed the sheer stones. He wasn't certain he _could_ get all the way up there. 

Stiles sprang up from where he was rolling on the ground with one of the other wolves and darted up the side of the rocks so quickly Derek almost missed it. He gave Derek a cocky grin, and then jumped off the slab and landed lightly on the ground. 

Well. If Stiles could do it, Derek could do it. 

It took him a couple of tries, but the third time, Derek scrambled far enough up the rock to grab the edge of the slab and pull himself up the rest of the way. 

Satomi made no move to help or advise him, just watched him with those ancient yellow eyes. It likely wasn't good form to glare at a god, but Derek still scowled. 

The only response was a raised brow and an ear flick. "You have a long way to go," Satomi said. "You will need training before the full moon." 

"The...what?" Derek sat on the sun-warmed rock. "What happens at the full moon?" 

"Magic is stronger at the full moon," Satomi said smoothly. "It will draw out the wolf in you, and you will change. With practice, you'll be able to control your change, but until then, you will spend each full moon as a wolf."

"I'll change back?" 

"As soon as the sun dawns, yes."

Derek looked down at the two wolves playing with Stiles on the grass below. "Are they like me?" 

Satomi followed his gaze. "No. Boyd and Erica are my children. They will be responsible for your training, helping you to understand what you can do now that you are a wolf in addition to practicing your control." 

Derek nodded, because what else could he do? He could hear heartbeats and smell a thousand new things and now he was going to change completely into a wolf on the full moon. The stories of the gods had never spoken of anything like _this_.

"What can I do?" he asked. As long as Satomi was here and feeling talkative, Derek was determined to take advantage of it. 

He swore the corner of her lips curled into a smile. "What have you noticed new about yourself, son of Talia?" 

That took no more than a second of thought. "I can hear and smell more," Derek said. "I can track by scent, now." 

"As you learn, you will be able to discern emotions from a person's scent and the beat of their heart. You'll be able to tell lies from truth, to know if they are happy or nervous or sad or frightened." She rested her head on her paws and half-closed her eyes. "You should also be stronger than before, though how much more, I could not say. You will heal faster from injuries, and illness will not claim you. And once you learn to control your shift, you ought to be able to shift in pieces, bring out your fangs or your eyes or your claws as you need."

"That's everything?" Derek asked. 

Satomi closed her eyes all the way. "All that I can recall. You should begin your training as soon as possible. The full moon rises in only a few days."

Derek got to his feet to make his way back down from the giant slab, and bowed awkwardly. He might be living with wolves now, but he still had the manners his mother had all but beaten into his head. "Thank you, Satomi, great god of the wolves, for your help and your answers."

She huffed, sending a small cloud of leaves spiraling off the slab and into the air. "You are one of us now, son of Talia. While I appreciate your respect, just 'Satomi' will do."

Derek bowed again, aghast at the idea of addressing a god so informally. "Yes, Satomi."

The name alone felt strange in his mouth, but Satomi merely smiled and rolled onto her side. 

Derek was about to jump down the side of the rocks when Satomi spoke once more. 

"Do not forget, son of Talia, my power protects you only within the borders of this forest. If you step outside, your humanity will return in full, as will your curse."

Even though he'd known that before he'd accepted this bargain, hearing it again made Derek shudder despite the warmth of the sun. "Don't worry. I won't."

***

With two new white wolves to meet, Derek's first thought was that he would never be able to tell the difference between Boyd and Erica. They were roughly the same size and the same color, both with only one tail as opposed to Satomi's two. However, that concern lasted only two minutes after meeting them. Erica was louder and more overtly playful, nipping flirtatiously at both Derek and Stiles whenever she got the chance. Boyd was perfectly happy to nap in the sun and seemed to tolerate Erica's exuberance and Stiles's energy, but Derek caught the way his tail thumped happily on the ground whenever they were playing. 

They also smelled different, Derek discovered. Erica was sort of bright and electric while Boyd reminded him of rich earth and old trees. But underneath it all was the same scent he'd smelled when he'd first stepped in the clearing, the one that twisted his heart and made him think of home. 

That must have been the smell of pack. 

Derek surreptitiously sniffed himself, wondering if it had transferred to him yet, but likely not. He'd only been in the forest for two days, and most of that time he'd been asleep on the island in the pond. 

Not that he needed to worry about how he smelled right now. No, right now, he needed to worry far more about controlling his shift. 

He glared at his hands and, for what felt like the hundredth time, willed his claws to come out. 

For what felt like the hundredth time, nothing happened. 

Derek groaned and Erica padded over to nose at his hands. She might have been smaller than Satomi, but her nose was still the size of Derek's fist. "Are you sure you're a wolf? It ought to be easier for you to bring out your claws. Maybe Mother's Bite didn't take all the way." 

Derek glared at her and sniffed exaggeratedly, hoping to prove her wrong. "You smell like blood." 

Erica poked her nose at his shoulder, nearly knocking him over. "I had a deer for lunch, of course I smell like blood. You should try it again. Seek your inner wolf and bring him out to play!" 

Not far away, Boyd snorted from where he was trying to take a nap. "You sound ridiculous." 

Erica pounced at him and growled. "It's true." 

Boyd didn't even open his eyes. "You still sound ridiculous." 

She swatted at his ears. "I'd like to see _you_ explain it."

Derek sighed and rubbed his forehead. Boyd and Erica had spent just as much time bickering as they had "training," and it didn't feel as though he'd made any progress. 

He turned his attention to Stiles, who was lounging underneath a tree and chewing on a strip of dried meat. Some help he was. 

With nothing to lose, Derek walked over to him and stood there until Stiles squinted up at him. 

"How do you do it?" Derek asked. 

Stiles frowned. "What?" 

"How do you control _this?_ " Derek wiggled his fingers. "How does shifting work for you?" 

Stiles set his jaw and dropped his gaze back to the piece of meat in his hands. "Why are you asking me? Erica and Boyd are the ones training you." 

Derek looked back at them, where Erica was now play-tugging on Boyd's ear and growling. "Yes, they're so much help," he said flatly. "I'm asking you because you're like me, and if—"

"I'm not _like_ you," Stiles cut him off. 

Derek sighed and pressed his lips together, trying not to show his frustration with this whole process. "I just meant that clearly, you've learned control, so—" 

Stiles didn't meet his eyes. "I can't help you." 

"But—"

"I already said I can't." Stiles's voice was brittle.

"Well, why the hell _not?_ " Derek burst out.

For a long moment, he was convinced Stiles wouldn't answer him, and he would have to resign himself to trying to understand two wolves who had no idea what it was like to be human. 

"I can't shift," Stiles finally said, voice low.

"You can't?" Derek couldn't hide his surprise. "Did the Bite not take, or—"

"I was never bitten." 

_Never bitten?_ "You're entirely human?" 

Stiles was on his feet, inches from Derek, face twisted in anger. "I'm not human! I'll never be human. I'm a wolf! Just because I can't shift like you doesn't make me any less of one." 

With that, Stiles darted into the woods and vanished from sight, leaving Derek reeling with...whatever had just happened. 

"That was the wrong thing to say," Erica said. 

Derek jumped; he hadn't heard her approach. From her smirk, he guessed she'd noticed. "I couldn't tell," he said drily, to distract her. 

"He doesn't like to be reminded that Mother can't bite him." 

"Can't?" That was unexpected. "Why can't she?" 

Erica sat on her haunches and scratched at her ear. "She told us the Bite would kill him."

Derek stared out into the forest, where Stiles had disappeared. "How could she know that?" 

"You'd have to ask her," Erica said. "Now, come on. We've only got a few days to get you ready for the full moon. Otherwise, it'll be an adventure for all of us."

He wasn't sure how she managed to sound gleeful and ominous at the same time, but she did. "I really don't like the way you say that."

Erica licked his ear. "That's because you're smart. Now come on! Bring out those claws and swipe me."

Derek sat back down with a sigh and focused on his hands. This was going to be a long day.


	4. Chapter 4

They continued to practice until the sun had set and hunger drove them back toward the den. While Derek's hands remained stubbornly claw-free, he did find he could lift a fallen log over his head and throw it twenty feet, and he learned how to track game by scent and hearing alone. It took a few hours, but eventually neither Erica nor Boyd could sneak up on him anymore, and Derek felt accomplished that he'd learned that much control, at least. It certainly made navigating the forest easier. 

Stiles didn't come back. Derek tried not to notice, but as the shadows grew longer, he couldn't help it. He told himself Stiles would be fine in the forest—obviously he would; he'd lived here longer than Derek—but he couldn't shake the knowledge that his questions had sent Stiles running off in the first place. 

The smells and sounds of the forest changed as day slipped slowly into night, subtle differences that nevertheless claimed Derek's attention with his new senses. Each time he heard a bird hoot, he whipped his head around, trying to identify which bird and how far it was. 

"You'll break your neck if you keep doing that," Boyd remarked after the third time. 

Derek could have sworn he was grinning as he spoke, but even with better night vision, it was difficult to tell. "I never knew they sounded so different."

"You'll get used to it."

Derek wanted to explain that wasn't what he meant, but he wasn't sure if Boyd would understand. Or could understand. How did one explain what it was like to hear only one instrument to someone who'd always heard a thousand? 

Suddenly, Erica stiffened and sniffed the air. 

Derek froze. "What—"

"Kira!" Erica bolted off through the trees, Boyd right on her heels. 

Bewildered and only slightly less concerned now, Derek ran after them. 

He stumbled into the clearing in front of the den to see Boyd and Erica wrestling with a red-coated, three-tailed fox. While not as large as Boyd or Erica, the fox was plenty big enough to hold its own, biting at Erica's ear and slipping neatly out of a hold. 

Erica growled and bounced to her feet. "Derek! Come meet Kira!" 

The fox scurried over to him and sat back, tails twitching excitedly. "Hi! You must be the new human Satomi told us about." 

Derek had known, logically, that the wolves were not the only gods in the woods, and he ought to respond respectfully, but the first thing that came out was, "Us?" 

Kira nodded. "My parents and I. We're the kitsune clan, from the west."

For the first time, Derek noticed two larger foxes—not as large as Satomi, but much bigger than Boyd and Erica—sitting closer to the den and talking with Satomi, both of them with at least twice as many tails as Kira. Derek belatedly remembered his manners and bowed to Kira. "It's very nice to meet you." 

Kira bowed back and then bumped his chest with her head. "Are you always so formal?" 

"Yes!" Erica said. "But he's only been awake for a day. He still thinks like a human." 

"Ohhh." Kira looked up at him in something like awe. "Is it true humans cook all their food before they eat it?" 

"Um. No? Just meat, usually," Derek said. "Well, and rice." 

He didn't know foxes could widen their eyes, but Kira's were _huge._ " _Fascinating!_ "

"Kira, don't pester the boy," one of the other foxes said. 

Kira ducked her head and backed away. "Sorry, Mother. And sorry, Derek. I didn't mean to be a bother." 

He had to smother a laugh at Kira's abashed look. "It's all right."

Kira danced away to wrestle with Boyd and Erica again, leaving Derek alone. He supposed he could wrestle with them, but he didn't feel up to testing his new healing abilities right now. 

He scanned the den area and spotted Stiles crouched next to a small fire with a pile of meat next to him. The smell of wood smoke was twice as strong as it normally would have been, with more depth than Derek knew it could have. Under it was the scent of cooking meat, and it made his mouth water. 

Stiles glanced up from the fire toward Derek, and his whole face darkened before he pointedly directed his gaze back to the fire. 

Derek winced. He ought to just leave Stiles alone, but he'd been the one in the wrong, even if he hadn't known. He gathered his courage and walked to the fire. 

Stiles didn't look up at him, didn't even give any indication that he knew Derek was coming but for the way his shoulders drew up closer to his ears. 

_I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't know, and it was unforgivably rude of me_ , Derek rehearsed in his head. _Please accept my apology. I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't know—_

He opened his mouth to say just that, and then he saw what Stiles was doing to the meat and his carefully crafted apology vanished from his tongue in favor of... "What are you _doing?_ "

Stiles scowled at the fire. "I'm cooking. What does it look like I'm doing?" 

It looked as though he was ensuring the meat was charred beyond all recognition. Stiles poked one piece with a stick and held it out to Derek. "Here you go. Cooked meat for the human." 

Derek gingerly took the stick and examined the—well, the whatever he'd been handed. The meat was roughly cut, charred on one side and raw and bleeding on the other. He hadn't seen meat burned this badly since he'd first started cooking.

And that was the problem. He knew how to cook _now_ because his mother had taught him. Derek wasn't sure how long Stiles had lived with the wolves, but it was clearly long enough that he felt comfortable calling Satomi "Mother." And wolves weren't exactly known for their culinary abilities. 

He swallowed any other comment and watched as Stiles speared his own piece of meat and started gnawing at the charred side. 

"Do you mind if I use that half of the fire?" Derek asked.

Stiles shrugged, which Derek took to mean _no_.

It didn't take him long to find three sticks that would work for his purpose, two with small Vs on the end, and a third longer one he could use as a spit. He stuck the two sticks in the ground on either side of the fire, and then speared his meat on the spit and set it in the crooks of the Vs. 

Now all he had to do was sit, rotate the meat, and wait. 

After a few minutes, the scent of cooking meat filled the air. Juices dripped into the fire, each drop sizzling. 

He heard Stiles shuffle closer, but Derek kept his eyes fixed on his meat. He sniffed, but between the wood smoke and the fire and the meat, it was difficult to pick out Stiles's scent. 

"What are you doing?" Stiles asked after another few minutes. 

"Cooking," Derek said. 

Stiles stuck his head right over Derek's shoulder, close enough that his voice rang overloud in Derek's ear. "Why are you doing it like _that?_ "

This close, Derek could smell him again, just as varied as it had been before but sharper—no, tangier—in some way. It rattled and soothed him at the same time, and Derek reminded himself to watch his meal. "Helps it cook evenly."

"Hm."

The exhalation was a warm puff of air right on Derek's ear, and he suppressed a shiver. He pulled the meat off the fire and held it out to Stiles. "Want some?" 

Stiles eyed Derek skeptically, like he thought this might be some kind of trick. Derek just held the meat where it was, and pulled off a strip himself and ate it.

It wasn't the best he'd ever made, but considering that the meat had been half-charred when he started, it wasn't bad.

Stiles cautiously pulled off a strip of meat and nibbled at it, and then his eyes doubled in size and he shoved the whole thing in his mouth. If Derek hadn't been watching, he would have sworn Stiles swallowed without even chewing. 

Then Stiles darted his gaze away. "It's not bad." 

_Not bad_. Derek pressed his lips together to keep from snorting. "Here." He held out the spit. "Take this one, then. I'll cook the other."

Stiles's forehead creased like he was agonizing over it for a split second, and then he snatched the meat off the spit and dug in. 

Derek's stomach growled, but he grabbed the other half-charred piece of meat from the other side of the fire and went to work cooking it. Stiles had scurried a few feet from him and turned away, like he feared Derek might take the meat back. 

He'd just finished cooking his own meat when Stiles was back at his side, crouched beside him and once again studying Derek with what appeared to be a healthy dose of suspicion. "Why did you give me your meat? What do you want?"

Derek didn't look at him. "I'm sorry." 

"What?" 

"Earlier today." Dammit, ten minutes ago he'd had this entire speech in his head; why couldn't he remember a word of it now? "I said...I was rude. I didn't know you weren't...I'm sorry."

Stiles continued to stare at him as though he was speaking another language, and Derek's face grew unbearably hot. Then Stiles's face cleared in recognition for one brief moment before it closed off and he turned away from Derek once again. He gave a jerky shrug. "Fine. It didn't bother me. Why would it have bothered me?" 

Derek bit into his hunk of meat, hot and juicy from the fire, rather than risk responding. He wasn't always good with words, and right now he worried he'd make it worse if he said more. 

Instead, he half-closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the den, practicing like he had earlier. Boyd, Erica, and Kira had run off somewhere in the trees, and he could hear the yips and growls of their wrestling under the hoots of owls and noise of the locusts. Occasionally, he could pick out the familiar rattling of the kodamas. 

And nearby, so low he almost couldn't make out the words, he heard Satomi and the foxes talking. 

"The boars are gathering in the south," one of the foxes—Kira's mother, Derek thought—said. 

_Boars._ A phantom pain shot up his arm, and Derek clenched his fist. 

"It seems bad news travels faster than it used to," Satomi said. 

"The word in the trees is that Deucalion wants vengeance against the humans for what happened to Kali," the other fox said. "I imagine they don't care too much about exactly _which_ humans."

A chill ran up Derek's spine at the thought. The image of a giant boar skeleton, lying in the outskirts of his village, flashed in his mind. 

No. The boars would have to come through the forest in order to get to his village. He could intercept them before they ever reached his sisters. 

Satomi lowered herself to the ground, facing away from Derek. "If Deucalion makes for Irontown, he may well find himself sharing Kali's fate." 

"Are Lady Victoria's defenses so strong, then?" the first fox asked. 

Satomi's tails twitched. "My dear Noshiko, haven't you seen? They push deeper into the forest every day, hauling away the trees and opening the land to mine. We do what we can to protect the forest, but the humans outnumber us and their bullets are poison. If it's vengeance Deucalion desires, he will pay dearly for it." 

Something poked Derek's arm, and he jerked at the unexpected touch, swatting at it. 

Stiles ducked away from his hand and made a face. "You startle too easy."

Derek let out a long breath, his heartbeat still pounding fiercely. "I didn't see you." 

"Because you weren't paying attention." Stiles narrowed his eyes. "What _were_ you paying attention to? Were you eavesdropping?" 

Heat flared in his cheeks. Stiles _couldn't_ know, and yet Derek felt those amber eyes staring straight through any lies he might have told. "The boars want revenge for the one who died."

Stiles did not seem particularly perturbed about this information. "Of course they do. Why shouldn't they?" 

"If they're shot, they'll turn into demons, just as Kali did," Derek said. Surely Stiles realized this. "They could destroy every village around the forest, and half the forest along the way." 

Stiles's eyes glinted with a hardness Derek hadn't seen before. "If they kill that horrible woman in the process, it may well be worth it." 

Derek couldn't believe his ears. "You don't mean that." 

Stiles turned that hard gaze fully on him. "You've never met Lady Victoria." 

_Lady Victoria_. The same name the fox had mentioned. "You would be willing to pay a price of so much death and destruction just in the hopes of getting rid of her?"

Stiles lunged forward, fully in Derek's space. "You have no idea what she's done. Yes, I would pay a high price to see her dead, and even higher if I could be the one to do it myself."

The ferocity in his voice left Derek cold, with a slight tingling in the back of his mind that told him to tread with caution. "What did she do to you?" 

Just as suddenly as he'd lunged forward, Stiles was on his feet and four paces back from Derek. "That's none of your concern, human. Just know that if Deucalion doesn't kill Lady Victoria, I will. That's a promise."

With that, he stalked into the forest once again, leaving Derek alone by the dying fire.


	5. Chapter 5

Derek waited late into the night to see if Stiles would return. He didn't, but the rest of the pack seemed oddly relaxed about it. Derek fell asleep sitting up, leaning against the cool rock of the den, the hot smell of the dying fire in each breath. 

He woke to someone poking him in the shoulder, and opened his eyes to see Stiles standing over him for the second day in a row. 

"Come on." Stiles jerked his chin toward the forest. "We're leaving." 

"Leaving?" Derek repeated, but Stiles was already walking away. 

"Patrolling," Boyd's voice said from beside him.

Derek nearly jumped out of his skin. Boyd stood up from where he'd been curled up next to Derek, stretching his legs out and yawning. "Stiles is right. You do startle easily." 

_He is_ not _right_ , Derek wanted to say. "When did you get there?" he asked instead. 

Boyd sat on his haunches and shrugged. "After you fell asleep. You looked cold."

"And lonely," Erica piped up from Boyd's other side.

That time, Derek did _not_ jump. He was absurdly pleased by that. Erica stuck out her tongue at him.

He had nothing to pack, so Derek kicked sand over the fire pit to ensure the embers were well and truly out, and went to the nearby creek to wash his face and get a drink before they left. He wished he had his waterskin, or some other way to carry water with him, but that wasn't something he'd thought to bring when they'd set out from the village in the dead of night. The wolves had no way of carrying food or water, either, so presumably they would be hunting or stopping for it.

"How far do we patrol?" he asked Boyd. 

"A half-day's run south and a half-day's run north," he said. "Further if we need to." 

Derek started to ask what constituted "need to" when Stiles poked him in the shoulder with the butt of a homemade spear. "Let's go, human. Time for you to learn the forest."

***

Traveling with the pack was unlike anything Derek had done before. They ran so fast he swore they didn't even touch the ground, moving through the trees like ghosts. His lungs burned as he fought to keep up with them, running faster than he ever had before. Running faster than it had been possible for him to run, just a few days earlier. 

The smells and sounds of the forest filled his senses, surrounding him more fully with every breath. It made something itch deep inside him, a clawing in his soul, resonating in his bones, alien and familiar all at once. The longer they ran, the louder his pulse beat, matching some primeval rhythm Derek scarcely comprehended but _felt_ on a level he couldn't explain.

Stiles rode on Erica's back, his fingers digging into her white fur, red mask pulled over his face and his white furred cape streaming out behind him. He looked half-animal, half-forest spirit, and it _did_ something to Derek, made him want to throw back his head and howl and _claim_. Claim _what_ , he had no idea, but it burned in his blood, hot and razor-sharp, a need he neither recognized nor understood. 

Satomi let loose with the howl first, vibrating the very air around them, and Boyd and Erica were fast to echo it. Derek gave into the urge in his blood and howled along with them, the sound far more animal than human as it ripped from his throat. It made his body sing with vicious pleasure, nothing as dark and violent and vengeful as the curse, but no less powerful.

For the first time, Derek understood what Erica had been saying about his inner wolf.

He wasn't sure how long they'd run when they finally stopped by a creek for water and rest, but it didn't feel like it had been that long. He felt like he could run forever, from one end of the great forest to the other. 

Stiles jumped off Erica's back and shoved the mask off his face, then strode over to Derek. "Looks like you figured it out." 

"Figured what out?" Derek asked. His mouth felt strange on the words; was that from the running? 

In lieu of an answer, Stiles grabbed his wrist and held Derek's hand up in front of his face. 

His _clawed_ hand. 

Derek stared, not quite able to believe his eyes. His fingers were longer, thick black claws protruding from the tips, his knuckles thicker and more hairy. 

He touched his face with trembling hands. His brow was heavier, protruding from his face; his ears were pointed; his hair had grown, sticking out from the sides of his face in tufts. He must look ridiculous. 

Stiles reached out and rubbed a thumb over Derek's brow, slow and deliberate. Derek's skin tingled at the touch, the smell of sweat and Stiles filling his nose, and all he wanted to do was lean forward and—

Stiles frowned. "Where did your eyebrows go?" 

_What?_ "What?" 

Stiles's thumb rubbed across his brow again, and Derek thought he might actually purr. "Your eyebrows seem to have disappeared." 

"Oh." Derek felt the absurd urge to cover his forehead with both hands and bury himself in the sand. He pulled away from Stiles's touch. "How should I know? It's the first time I've changed."

He stalked down to the creek to wash his face and drink. Now that he was aware of it, he could feel the difference in his face and body, how strange it was, part wolf and part human, both and neither. 

This time, he heard Stiles coming, and so didn't jump when he heard "It's not a bad thing." 

Derek looked up, raised his eyebrows. Well, his brows. Since apparently he had no eyebrows now. 

Stiles scratched the back of his neck, and his scent took on a different tang. And was it Derek's imagination, or were his cheeks a little pink? "I didn't mean it as a bad thing. It's just new. And you should be happy! You shifted! Who knew a little running was all it would take?"

Derek bared his teeth and growled, and maybe took a little too much satisfaction in the way Stiles's eyes widened and he jumped back a foot. The shock on his face lasted only the space of a heartbeat though, and then he was baring his own teeth and growling right back at Derek.

It wasn't the same as a wolf's growl, might have been a pale imitation, but it wrapped around something in Derek, found that base desire that made him want to bite and claim, and _yanked_ at it.

Derek sprang forward and knocked him to the ground, pinning Stiles there. His blood pounded with the need to claim, to make Stiles submit, to rub himself in that scent. 

The same scent that had gone sharp with a new note Derek didn't recognize, and now that he was listening he could hear the rapid beat of Stiles's heart, fast as a mouse's. 

_Hell_. Derek let go and jumped off Stiles, scooting a few feet away. Rising to the challenge wasn't acceptable when Stiles was human, wouldn't heal if Derek sank his teeth into him or broke his skin with claws. 

For the first time, he was uncomfortably aware of his new power, felt overgrown and awkward instead of strong. 

Stiles sat up and stared at him, a look in his amber eyes Derek couldn't decipher. Or maybe one he just didn't want to. 

Then his head snapped around, like he was hearing something Derek wasn't. "Trouble to the south." 

"What?" Derek searched, but couldn't see what Stiles had. "What do you see?" 

Stiles scrambled to his feet and yanked down his mask. "I hear it in the trees. We have to hurry." 

Just then, Satomi howled, a different howl from the one while they'd been running, and it chilled the very marrow of Derek's bones. 

Stiles darted over to Erica, not even pausing to scoop his spear off the ground. Derek jumped to his feet and ran after them, heart pounding at what they would find to the south.

***

Derek had never run so fast in his life, spurred on by the tension he felt in the pack, but they weren't fast enough. He smelled the fire before they ever reached it, the scent of burning flesh. It turned his stomach, even from their distance. 

They broke through the treeline and Derek stopped cold. The forest had been obliterated to the south, trees cut down as far as he could see, leaving only stumps behind. A pile of bodies sat smoldering, piled as tall as Derek himself. Looking as closely as he dared, he could see they weren't humans, but apes, dozens of them.

He had to cover his nose and mouth to keep from gagging. "Good gods." 

He wanted to ask what had happened, but the words wouldn't come. 

"They were planting trees," Boyd said quietly. "To rebuild the forest where the humans had cut it down." 

Derek turned to stare at him. "And the humans killed them for it? _All_ of them?" 

"Of course," Stiles said bitterly from his perch atop Erica. "If the trees grow back, the humans won't be able to mine their precious iron." He glared at Derek, fury in his gaze. "Still think the humans can be reasoned with?" 

He wanted to protest, because he knew in his heart they couldn't all be like this, they couldn't all be so blindly destructive and disrespectful to the forest and its gods. There had to be people who would listen to reason, who would _want_ peace between their worlds to prevent even worse bloodshed.

But faced with such irrefutable evidence, he couldn't bring himself to say a single word.


	6. Chapter 6

Their patrolling for the next few days was subdued. Although Derek still felt the wolf inside him stretching as they ran, clawing to be let out to play, the specter of the dead apes hung in the air like a palpable thing. Even though life went back to some semblance of normal, Derek could feel it with every breath he took, the reminder that he'd stepped into a world he didn't understand, and no matter how much he wanted peace, it may well have to be achieved at the end of a knife. 

He continued training with Boyd and Erica. Now that he'd managed to shift partially, it was easier to grasp what they meant about bringing his wolf out. He still couldn't shift only one part of him at a time, but he was getting better at shifting at will and generally controlling his new senses. It was overwhelming at times, but as long as he could find something to focus on, it helped. 

Derek tried not to think about how often the "something to focus on" turned out to be Stiles. 

They returned to the den each night, Boyd or Erica usually bringing in a fresh kill for dinner. Derek taught Stiles how to skin the meat and cook it properly using the spit, although Stiles was sometimes too eager and yanked it off half-raw. They bickered companionably about cooking times, with Stiles grumbling that he _liked_ the meat charred or _liked_ it still bleeding. Derek just snorted and kept cooking, because it was worth the way Stiles's eyes rolled back in his head and the involuntary moans he made when he ate a perfectly cooked piece of meat. 

They didn't talk about the apes, or the boars, or the humans from Irontown. All in all, it might have been pleasant, if Derek hadn't been able to see and smell the tension that came over Stiles every time he froze and looked up at the trees. 

_What do you hear?_ Derek wanted to ask, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer.

***

Six days after he'd accepted Satomi's help and taken the Bite, Derek woke up feeling more irritable and restless than he had since the curse had been cured. His skin itched and prickled, like he needed to run, needed to shift, but no matter what he did, the feeling didn't dissipate. 

He snapped at Erica and growled at Boyd, and only his sense of self-preservation kept him from lashing out at Satomi herself. Derek decided it was best if he stayed away from all of them until he was in a better mood, so just after midday, he set off toward the pond at the center of the forest.

Not five minutes into his trek, he heard a rustle of leaves that signified he was being followed. Sure enough, Stiles fell into step beside him a moment later, spear loosely balanced on his shoulder and looking like he didn't have a care in the world. 

Derek snarled at him. "What are you doing?" 

"Making sure you don't kill yourself falling into a river." 

"I thought you'd be happy to be rid of me for an afternoon." 

Stiles didn't simply roll his eyes; he rolled his entire head. "It's the full moon, you nitwit, you shouldn't be away from pack." 

Derek stopped cold. "The full moon? That's tonight?" 

Stiles nodded. "Of course it is. Haven't you been paying attention?" 

He _had_ , but Derek had only noted the waxing moon in the same way he always had: that it was getting larger and the night sky was getting brighter. Now he recalled Satomi's words from only a few days before. Tonight, he was going to change fully. He'd become a wolf. And even though she said he'd change back with the morning, Derek still felt a sliver of...not fear, but concern. 

Stiles scoffed and shook his head. "The magic of the forest is connected to the pull of the moon. It waxes and wanes with the light, strongest during the full moon and weakest during the new moon." He regarded Derek critically. "You'll probably be insufferable on the new moon, too." 

Derek ignored the jibe. Stiles sounded almost reverent in a way Derek hadn't heard before. "How do you know all that?" 

Stiles shrugged, but his scent had spiked sour. "My mother." 

Something in his voice told Derek he wasn't talking about Satomi. The moment felt unusually heavy. 

"What else do you know about the forest and magic?" Derek asked, to lighten the air and hopefully make Stiles's scent less sour. 

Stiles whirled around and walked backwards, grinning cockily at Derek. "Thinking of becoming a forest mage?" 

Derek snorted. "No. But it seems like something I should know, living here now." 

"Well," Stiles swept out his hands, "asking me is a sound decision on your part. Only the wolves know more about the forest than I do. What you've seen on the patrols has only been a quarter of it, if that." 

He rambled as they walked, pointing out which trees produced edible fruit and which were poisonous, how to avoid snakes, and how to tell which kodamas belonged to which trees. Derek listened, sure he would only remember half of it, but pleased nonetheless. Stiles was _smiling_ , voice tinged with happiness and excitement, and the sour note in his scent had vanished completely. 

It wasn't until they reached the pond that Derek realized the itching in his skin hadn't bothered him for the entire stroll.

***

By the time the sun set, Derek's restlessness was driving him out of his mind. He paced endlessly, trying to work off the energy, but it was to no avail; it kept building as the sky grew darker and darker. None of that helped his nerves or eased the anxiety now twisting in his gut, sharp and fearful. 

"Don't fight it," Satomi said. "Fighting the change will only make it worse."

_Easy for you to say_ , Derek thought. She wasn't the one who was going to have her whole body change. He set his jaw to keep the words in, and nodded. 

Then the moon rose, and Derek only had time to think _I hope this doesn't hurt_ before it started. 

His insides shifted, a jolt that should have made him nauseous, but didn't. His bones crunched, ground against each other, broke and knitted back together. Derek closed his eyes, wished he could close his ears and close off the feeling, because it _didn't_ hurt, but it should; changing this much should _hurt_ and the fact that it didn't somehow made everything worse. 

Every sense magnified a thousand times under the light of the full moon, smells and sounds alike, too many of them scrabbling for his attention. Derek tried to focus, to regain some semblance of control, but it was impossible. 

As suddenly as the shift had started, it ceased, and he lay panting on the ground, feeling as though he'd run the length of the entire forest and back. The sounds and smells, so overwhelming just a few bare seconds ago, had returned to their ordinary intensity. Perhaps a little stronger than before, but nothing he couldn't handle. 

Just on the edge of his vision, a kodama appeared with a soft rattle.

_Play with me? Run? Catch?_

The voice was in his head more than his ears, but his ears still perked up at the notion. _Yes,_ he wanted to play. 

The wolf scrambled to his feet and snapped at the kodama, who vanished and reappeared several feet away. He growled and sprang after it.

The kodama stayed ahead of him, fading out of existence when he got too close and fading in again further away. Other kodamas joined the chase, and the wolf snapped at them gleefully, the thrill of the hunt beating in his bones. Their voices echoed in his head, urging him on.

_Play!_

_Catch!_

_Too slow!_

_Faster!_

Another voice called for him, from somewhere far behind, but the wolf dismissed it with a twitch of his ears and plunged over a fallen log after another kodama. 

A howl echoed through the forest, powerful and impatient. " _Stop!_ "

The wolf froze, fur bristling at the reprimand. Was the Alpha unhappy with him? Had he ventured too far?

A look around the forest told him he had. He recognized neither the sounds nor smells here, and though he sniffed around, he couldn't pick up the pack-scent. 

He sat down and howled pitifully, hoping the Alpha would howl again, and he could make his way back to the pack. 

Something rustled in the woods behind him, and there was a new scent, something like metal and wood and burning-not-burning. The wolf crept toward it, wrinkling his nose. The closer he got, the more he smelled other scents, strange but not _bad_. 

He poked his head into a clearing and saw a dark-haired human female straightening, two dead rabbits and a dead bird at her feet with a single arrow sticking out of each of them. She was pulling a string off a bow. _Laura?_

_Who's Laura?_

__Something niggled in the back of the wolf's mind, trying to get his attention.

The woman turned, giving him a full view of her face, and the wolf felt disappointed. _Not Laura_.

She spotted him and froze where she was, dark eyes wide and fixed on his position. Her heartbeat pattered faster, louder. 

The wolf cocked his head. She was a curious thing. 

The woman slowly crouched, never taking her eyes off him. "You must be one of Satomi's wolves. You...are much bigger than I expected." 

_Satomi. Alpha_. Yes, he was part of her pack. The wolf cautiously stepped forward. The woman didn't appear to be a threat. 

She picked up one of her rabbits, pulled out the arrow, and tossed it to him, though she herself didn't move any closer. The wolf caught it easily, but didn't eat it. The woman didn't _appear_ to be a threat, but he was going to remain on his guard anyway. 

"My gods, you're gorgeous." She straightened up and bowed. "Thank you for letting me hunt in your forest."

Why was she thanking him? How was it his forest? 

More howls sounded, louder and closer than they had been before. And under the howls, a voice called out, just audible at the edge of the wolf's hearing. 

"Derek!" 

_Derek._

Everything came back to him with the force of a branch breaking over his head, and Derek dropped the rabbit from his jaws. _Shit_. How far had he gone? How long had he been taken over by the wolf? 

The woman smiled. "Sounds like they're looking for you." 

Now that he had his mind once again, Derek could see more of why the woman had reminded him of Laura. She was definitely shorter and younger than Laura was, probably closer to Derek's own age, but she had the same pale skin and dark hair, and wore her hair tied away from her face just as Laura did when she was doing chores. 

The resemblance was just enough to make his heart ache. 

The wolves howled again, and now Derek could pick out which one was Erica and which one was Boyd. Satomi wasn't howling. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. 

And then he heard Stiles's voice yelling his name again. 

His whole body leaned toward them, the thread of pack calling him back just as much as the howls were. 

The woman chuckled and picked up her kills. "Don't forget your present! Give it to the great god Satomi, and let her know that Allison Argent asks for her favor." She bowed again. "My gift will be bigger next time, I promise." 

Derek wanted to ask what she meant, why she sought favor with Satomi, but Allison—he assumed—was already running from the clearing and disappearing into the trees. 

He picked up the rabbit gently and started in the direction of the howls. Between that and the night wind finally blowing their familiar scents his way, Derek managed to find a path back to them. 

He'd only just set his eyes on the white fur of the other wolves when Erica plowed into him, knocking him to the ground and licking his face. "Where were you? We were worried! You just ran off!" 

Derek tried to tell her to get off him and let him stand up, but he wasn't sure he could talk in this form even if he didn't have a rabbit in his teeth. 

"Yes, ran off so fast you couldn't catch him," Boyd said mildly.

Erica stopped nuzzling at Derek to pounce on Boyd. "You take that back! He had a head start!" 

Derek scrambled to his feet and out of Erica's range. She seemed to have lost interest in him temporarily, though. 

Satomi, on the other hand, regarded him silently, her yellow eyes bearing down on him with such weight Derek couldn't help but bow his head. 

He slunk forward and delicately dropped the rabbit at Satomi's feet.

It was difficult to tell, but he thought she looked mildly surprised. "From you?" 

Derek tried to answer, but he had no idea how to speak in this form. He shook his head instead and poked his paw at the arrow mark in the rabbit's hide. 

"Hm." Satomi's face gave nothing away. "We will speak after the moon sets." 

Even though she hadn't uttered a word about it, Derek could feel her disapproval weighing on him for the way he'd run off. He couldn't even apologize properly right now; he could only tuck his tail and hope that his posture displayed it well enough. 

"You absolute _idiot!_ " 

Derek jerked his head up, surprised to see Stiles stalking toward him, mask up and face twisted in anger, scent gone almost _hot_. He started to scamper backward, before remembering Stiles was a human and he was a wolf; he shouldn't be _running in fear_.

Stiles jabbed his spear at Derek, close enough that the blade brushed his fur. "Do you have any idea how close we are to Irontown? Do you have any idea what could have happened to you if they'd caught you? You haven't even been in this forest a week! You don't have any idea—"

"That's enough, Stiles," Satomi said mildly. 

Stiles's glare didn't lessen, but he pressed his lips together and looked away. 

_Irontown_. Derek reeled internally at that new information. He really _had_ run awhile, if he was that far south. 

He was surprised Stiles cared, though. 

Derek tentatively (stupidly) shuffled a little closer, intending to nose at Stiles's free hand and perhaps convey a wordless apology. 

Stiles glared at him again, and Derek stopped moving. 

Then, without another word, Stiles grabbed his fur and hefted himself, spear and all, onto Derek's back. 

The unexpected weight was far more than Derek thought it should have been, given how lean and lanky Stiles was, but then Stiles was _wiggling_ into some kind of position and his thighs squeezed Derek's sides. 

"I'm going to ride you back to the den, so you can't run off and get into any _more_ trouble," Stiles grumbled. 

_Gods_. He couldn't have the faintest idea what he'd just said. Derek was grateful he wasn't human, because he would have choked on nothing. As it was, he could only be thankful that wolves didn't blush. 

None of the other wolves seemed to notice, though, or if they did, they were kind enough not to say anything. Satomi took off through the woods, Boyd and Erica on her heels. Derek followed, Stiles a warm, unforgettable weight on his back the entire way.


	7. Chapter 7

Derek unearthed himself from a pile of sleeping wolves (and one sleeping human) the next morning, his whole body achy and trembling, stomach growling so loud it was a wonder he didn't wake anyone else. 

"Hungry?" 

His head snapped up at the question, and he saw Satomi sitting next to the fire pit along with a dead ox. She regarded him wordlessly, but something about her expression made the hair on the back of his neck prickle.

Cautiously, Derek picked his way over Boyd, Erica, and Stiles to join Satomi by the ashes of the fire. It took him longer than usual to get a fire going, but soon the logs were burning bright and he was using Cora's crystal knife to carve a piece of meat from the ox. 

"You needn't cook that, you know," Satomi said. "Your body is undoubtedly craving it after last night." 

Derek hesitated, but he was far too hungry to wait for the meat to cook right now, and the idea of eating it raw didn't trouble him as much as it had a few days before. He picked up the meat and took a bite. 

It was...well, he still preferred cooked meat, but this was good. Much better than he'd expected. 

Satomi stayed silent while he ate the first piece of meat, and then Derek cut off another to cook. He'd speared it on the spit and started rotating it over the fire when she finally spoke again. 

"What do you recall about last night?" 

Derek frowned at the question. The night was jumbled in his mind, fracturing in places when he tried to put pieces back together, but it wasn't wholly gone. "I...ran off. I'm not sure how far."

"Do you remember giving me a rabbit?"

He did, vaguely, and it took Derek a moment to chase down the memories around it. He remembered the woman with the arrows, the one he thought was Laura, and his heart clenched.

"She said to tell you Allison Argent asks for your favor," Derek said slowly, "and that she would have a bigger gift next time." 

"Allison Argent? Are you certain that was her name?" 

Derek raised his eyebrows at the urgency in Satomi's voice. It was but a fraction more hurried than how she normally spoke, but it was enough to give away something in her usually implacable façade. "Yes. Do you know her?" 

Satomi growled. "I know her mother, Lady Victoria, that damned woman who took over Irontown."

The remembered scent of iron from the night before filtered into his nose. Allison was from Irontown. What was she doing hunting in the forest with a mere bow and arrow? 

"Did you ever have dealings with Lady Victoria?" Satomi asked. 

Derek shook his head. "No. I've never heard of her." He'd never heard of her before he'd come here, but that was beside the point. 

"Hm. You should thank your gods, then." Satomi lay down beside the fire and settled her head on her massive paws. "She is the reason those bullets exist, the reason we find our forest leveled and piles of bodies burning. The woman has no respect for this land. Her daughter will not be any different." 

"Has Lady Victoria ever sent you a gift, curried your favor?" Derek countered. 

Satomi lifted her head to turn the full force of her gaze on him, and Derek had to fight the instinct to duck his head and bare his neck. "It would do you well to be more cautious of the humans from Irontown."

Derek swore he could still feel the writhing of the curse under his skin. He clenched his fist. "And you think I'm not?" 

"I think it was foolish to let the daughter of Victoria Argent go free," she said bluntly.

"She wasn't harming anything. She was only hunting," Derek argued. "And she didn't smell like a threat." 

"And after your week in this forest, you know so well what a threat smells like?" 

Derek stiffened at the barb, had to remind himself that it would not do to anger a god, let alone one he would have to live with for the foreseeable future. "I felt no danger from her." 

Satomi got back to her feet. "Be that as it may, I do not want you having contact with her or any other person from Irontown. They are dangerous, and our duty is to protect this forest, not befriend the people who would raze it to the ground."

"I don't—" 

Satomi cut him off with a sharp look. 

Derek swallowed and nodded. "Yes, Satomi." 

"Glad we have an understanding," Satomi said. "I have one more question for you." 

Derek turned his focus completely back to the meat, nodded jerkily. "What is it?" 

"What helped you regain control last night?" 

That was not the question he'd expected, and Derek was relieved for it. "I'm not sure. I think it was hearing my name."

"From any particular one of us?" 

"Stiles," Derek said. "The rest of you were just howling." 

Satomi's ears twitched up. "Really? Interesting." 

It might have been his imagination, but Derek thought she sounded surprised. "Why is it interesting that hearing my name brought me back?" 

"That is not what is interesting." Her voice held a touch of amusement. "What is interesting is that you only heard your name from Stiles when Boyd and Erica were calling it as well." 

Derek dropped his meat into the fire. " _What?_ What does that mean?" 

Satomi stretched out her forelegs and walked away. "I'm not sure. But it _is_ interesting, don't you think?"

***

Derek had every intention of following Satomi's request not to interact with humans from Irontown, truly he did. He knew in his bones they couldn't all be dangerous, but the wolves had had far more experience with the people there than he had. Plus, the burning bodies of the ape tribe and the scarred forest were still emblazoned in his mind.

Of course, that was right alongside Allison's kind smile and the gift she'd left for them. 

And no matter what, he couldn't shake the nagging reminder that the boars were gathering, seeking vengeance for Kali's death. He'd heard nothing more from Satomi on the matter, and if anyone else heard rumors from the trees, they weren't telling him about it. They hadn't seen the foxes since they'd gone on their merry way after that first night, so Derek couldn't ask them for news. 

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he kept hearing his mother's voice, urging him to do _something_ to stop the fighting. If peace couldn't be built between the humans and the animals of the forest, then all of them would perish. Derek could see it in his mind's eye as clearly as if he'd already witnessed it: the forest destroyed, trees broken and burning, the kodamas gone, the villages demolished. 

It had to stop somehow, but Derek had no idea if they had come too far down that path, and the only thing he could do now was protect the few he could and hope to survive it. 

_It is never too late. You must try. You must. You are the only one who sees peace as an option, and you must make the others see it as well_.

The thought stayed in the back of his mind for days, burrowing at him, tickling at the back of his neck with a low sense of urgency he couldn't shake. 

He wasn't the one for this duty. He wasn't diplomatic. But he was the only one around who didn't want to utterly obliterate the other side, it seemed, and that meant the duty fell to him regardless of whether he was prepared for it.

***

He was just going to explore the forest, Derek told himself. That was all. He hadn't ventured that far from the den since the full moon, and since it _was_ something that happened once a month, he needed to be more familiar with the forest in case he ran off again. That way, when he came back to himself, he wouldn't be lost. He could find his way back on his own. 

Perfectly sound reasoning. None of the wolves could have argued with it. 

And if he headed south toward Irontown, the way he'd run the previous time, well, he'd done it once. There was always a chance he might do it again, and he needed to be prepared. 

Again, perfectly sound reasoning. Derek was positive he could say it aloud without his heart skipping in the least. 

However, _if_ in his explorations he happened to come across Allison Argent's hunting grounds, or the girl herself, well. It was only in the best interest of the wolf tribe that he stay hidden and attempt to gauge where her loyalties lay. Learning more about the enemy, as far as they were concerned. 

He would be cautious. He had to be, because this was a delicate situation. But he also couldn't wait any longer before trying to find an ally in Irontown. 

Derek ran through the forest, slower than he did when he was with the pack, because he was serious about making sure he could find his way around. He stopped and catalogued the scents and sounds, made note of strange trees and rock formations, being careful to keep track of which direction he was traveling. A few kodamas scampered along the ground next to him, leaping over each other and rattling at him. Outside of his wolf form, Derek couldn't understand what they were saying, and he didn't want to shift fully in case he lost himself again. Stiles wasn't out here to bring him back. 

He slowed further when he smelled iron, much fainter than it had been the night before. This must be close to where Allison hunted, or she came through here regularly. 

Derek moved warily now, keeping to the shade of trees and off the trails, listening for the sounds of human life. There was a chance other people from Irontown had a similar scent, and he didn't want to come face-to-face with someone when he didn't know their intentions. 

He didn't know Allison's intentions, but she had thought to give a gift from her hunt to Satomi. That, at least, spoke that she wanted something from the wolf tribe that didn't involve bloodshed. 

The shuffling sound of footsteps echoed to his left, and Derek froze where he was and listened. Definitely a human, probably just fifteen yards south-southeast of him. He couldn't tell more than that just from their footsteps. 

Then a bow twanged and a bird squawked a split-second later. 

Derek followed the sound as quickly and silently as he could manage; the past several days of running with wolves and Stiles had made him much better at that then he'd been just a handful of weeks before. The forest seemed quieter than usual, making it easier to follow the hunter. It was a few moments before Derek realized the quiet came because there were no kodamas around. 

So they were being cautious, too. 

He caught a glimpse of someone moving up ahead and to his left, and Derek skirted right to maintain some distance between them. It was Allison, dark hair once again bound up on top of her head, kneeling down to pick up her kill. 

Derek hid behind a large tree and peered out, watching her pick up the bird and attach it to a rope with three other kills already on it. She'd been busy today. 

He sniffed the air, trying to catch her scent, but he was too far away and the wind wasn't blowing the right direction. 

She unstrung her bow and rolled up the string, then tossed her kills over shoulder. It looked like she was getting ready to head back to Irontown. If Derek was going to talk to her today, he had to say something now. 

He was about to step out from behind the tree when someone grabbed him from behind and clapped a hand over his mouth. 

Derek snarled, fingers extending into claws, and was just about to dig them into his captor when Stiles hissed, "Don't make a sound." 

_Stiles_. Good gods, when had he gotten here? Derek wanted to kick himself for being so focused on Allison he completely missed Stiles sneaking up on him. He yanked Stiles's hand off his mouth and turned around. "What are you _doing_ here?" 

"Keeping you from getting yourself shot," Stiles whispered. "What are _you_ doing here? Consorting with the enemy?" 

"Consort—" Derek glanced back behind his shoulder. Allison was gone. _Dammit_. "How can I consort? I didn't even talk to her!"

Stiles took a step closer to him, voice still low. "But you were planning on it, weren't you? That's why you came all the way back out here." 

"I came out here because I'm trying to learn the forest," Derek protested. "And I ran this way because this is where I ran on the full moon. I didn't know she'd be here." 

All of that was true, but by Stiles's glare, he didn't believe a word of it. "So you were just, what, following her in order to rip her throat out?" 

Derek recoiled. "Of course not! She was only hunting. I'm not going to rip out someone's throat for shooting their dinner." 

Stiles growled. "So why _were_ you watching her?" 

"She asked Satomi for favor," Derek said. "I wanted to know why."

"And you were just going to ask?" Stiles sounded appalled at the thought. 

"How else do you propose I find out why?" Derek waved his hand above him. "I can't divine it from the trees." 

Stiles's cheeks went splotchy. "That's because you can't hear them, human." 

Derek was getting damn sick of being called _human_ every time Stiles got irritated with him. He stepped forward, closing the distance between them further, fangs pricking at his lips. "Are you offering to ask them for me?" 

Stiles's heartbeat pounded faster, and his gaze darted away from Derek, locking firmly at something over his shoulder. He didn't answer. 

"That's what I thought." Derek felt a growl rumble in the back of his throat, and he silenced it. "So why did you stop me from asking _her?_ "

"Because it's my job to keep you from doing anything stupid!" Stiles snapped. "Talking to the daughter of Lady Victoria? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of _anyone_ doing, and I've lived in this forest for ten years!" 

"She didn't shoot me when I was a wolf. What in the name of the gods makes you think she'd do it while I'm human?" Derek shot back. 

"Because she's from _Irontown_ ," Stiles shouted, saying the name of the city like that explained everything. "How many times do I have to tell you, you can't reason with them! They don't care about the forest. They don't care about _life_. They don't even care about other humans. They just care about their iron, and they'll kill anyone who gets in their way. What will it _take_ to get that through your thick skull?" 

Derek wanted to strangle him, fisted his hands to keep them at his sides. "I'm not going to curse a daughter, whatever the sins of her mother are. All I know is that everyone in and around this forest seems hell-bent on killing everyone else, and I'd like it to stop before every god in this land has been turned into a bloody demon!"

"So, what, you think you'll just sit down with Lady Victoria, have a nice long chat with her, and she'll magically decide not to wipe out the forest for mines anymore? I hate to be the one to burst your bubble, but we've _tried_ that. The only thing we got was more blood and grief." 

Derek startled at that. "What? You've tried talking to her? When?" 

Stiles stepped away from him, lips pressed together so hard they were turning white. "Nothing. It's not important. We should head back." 

Derek wasn't letting it go that easily. He took a stab in the dark. "Who did she kill? Who did you lose?" he asked, as gently as he could. 

Stiles turned away from him, but not before Derek caught the way his scent changed, acrid and bitter. "I just said it was nothing. Quit asking questions. Now come back before I leave you out here to be eaten by the trees." 

"The trees aren't going to eat me." 

"They might if I ask them," Stiles spat over his shoulder. "Now come on. It's nearing dark." 

With that, he scampered over the ground back toward the den, not even glancing back to see if Derek was following.


	8. Chapter 8

Derek wasn't entirely surprised Satomi took him aside the moment he set foot back at the den. She jumped to the slab on top of their cave and gave him a _look_. Derek sighed and scrambled up, preparing himself for the tongue-lashing that was sure to follow. 

"So, you went exploring today," she said, voice mild. 

Derek gritted his teeth. Stiles had probably already told her everything that had happened. "I did. I went south toward Irontown, the same way I went on the full moon. I saw Allison Argent, but I didn't speak with her." 

Satomi looked surprised. "You admitted that rather readily." 

"I'm sure Stiles has already told you, and you can hear my heartbeat." Derek sat on the warm rock and shrugged. "There's not a point in lying about it." 

"What do you want with the Argent girl?" Satomi asked. "I don't like your curiosity about her." 

Derek bit back his frustration. "I just wanted to talk. That's all." 

"Just wanted to talk?" 

It sounded like she didn't believe him. Derek glared off into the forest, the trees a steadily darkening shadow against the night sky. "Yes."

"What makes you think she wanted to talk to you?" 

"Maybe she doesn't." Derek inwardly winced at the sharpness in his tone, and focused on calming himself. "I don't know if she does, but she didn't harm me as a wolf and gave me a gift for you." 

"And so you believe you can trust her?" 

He was getting tired of all these questions. "I don't _know_. But the only way I'll find out is if I talk to her."

"What do you hope to accomplish with that, son of Talia?"

"To get them to stop making bullets!" Derek pressed his hands into the stone to keep from gesturing with them. "To keep the boars from wiping out every human around the forest in revenge for what happened to Kali. To stop the bloodshed that started with her death." 

Satomi snorted softly. "Do you really think that's where the bloodshed started? With your arrows, protecting your village from a demon who was formerly a god?" 

"If I'm wrong, please enlighten me."

Satomi's tails whapped once against the stone slab, a wordless warning. "Lady Victoria has not always been mistress of Irontown. She and her husband only arrived there eleven years ago. It did not take them long to begin using the iron to manufacture bullets and guns, to start harming the gods of the forest when we tried to protect what was ours.

"We had one person willing to talk with them, to sit down and try to mediate peace between our people." Satomi's voice turned uncharacteristically hard. "Lady Victoria had her murdered." 

Derek's heart pounded, his blood rushing in his veins so loud it was all he could hear. "Who was it?" he asked, even though he thought he could guess the answer. 

"Her name was Claudia," Satomi said quietly. "A witch of unimaginable power, who lived in harmony with the humans and the forest alike. After her death, I could not bear to see her son raised by the people who had her killed, and so I took him in to raise as my own." 

His eyes sought out Stiles, who was crouched next to the fire, slowly roasting meat the way Derek had taught him days ago. 

"Surely you wondered why I had a human child," Satomi said. 

Derek made himself look away, turn his gaze back to the forest. "It was never my place to ask." 

"It's why I cannot bite him, as I did you." Satomi rested her head on her front paws. "He has inherited his mother's magic. He can neither use nor control it, but it will not allow the Bite regardless."

He remembered the way Stiles had snapped at him, saying that he couldn't be bitten. It made more sense now, and Derek wanted to apologize yet again. 

"Would you have bitten him, if you had been able?" he asked. 

"It would be easier for him, if he could truly live as a wolf." 

Derek finally looked away from the forest so he could look at Satomi. "Are you so sure about that?" 

Her ancient yellow eyes fixed on him, and a tendril of fear curled its way through his gut. It wasn't wise to anger a god. 

"I have lived more ages than you will ever see," Satomi said, her voice heavy. "You should avoid the humans of Irontown. If they betray you and you are captured, I will not help you."

Derek clenched his fists, claws pricking his palms. "I understand, Satomi, great god of the wolves." 

She snorted. It might have been with amusement. "I thought I told you not to call me that." 

Derek shrugged and stood. "I thought I needed the reminder."

***

Satomi's warning sat heavily on his mind, but it wasn't enough to stop Derek from returning to the forest the next day and seeking Allison. There was the fear of getting captured, but he was hoping that if he were in human form and not a wolf, they would be more likely to let him go. Or at the very least, underestimate him. By the way Satomi had spoken, it had been a long time since she'd bitten a human, so it was likely they wouldn't even know what he was. 

This time, he paid as much attention to the forest behind him as he did to the forest before him, not wanting to be caught unawares by Stiles yet again. Though he didn't hear anything, he caught a whiff of Stiles's scent now and again. It could have just been left over from other times Stiles had come through the forest, or it could mean he was following Derek again. 

Either way, Derek let himself take a little comfort from it.

Derek didn't even pretend he was going anywhere other than the area of the forest where he'd now seen Allison twice. If he saw her hunting again, he would wait until she'd unstrung her bow and then introduce himself. She hadn't seen him as a human; it was likely she would be on her guard. 

He found the clearing where they'd first met, and walked around the perimeter, looking for some indication of which ways she typically went from here. It hadn't been that long. Surely he could find a footprint or something. 

The hair on the back of his neck prickled, and Derek slowly turned to find himself staring at a drawn bow on the other side of the clearing. He raised his hands to show he was unarmed. 

Allison stepped over a rock, keeping her arrow aimed right at his chest. Her dark eyes were suspicious and hard. "Why are you following me?" 

Derek tried to keep his face as open and unthreatening as possible. He didn't want to start potential negotiations with an arrow to his chest, though he was reasonably sure he'd heal from it. "My name is Derek Hale, of the wolf tribe."

Allison's eyes flicked over him, and she frowned. "You are not the wolf prince. Unless Satomi has gone and stolen herself another boy." 

Derek couldn't help the growl he made. "I wasn't stolen, and neither was Stiles, if that's who you mean. I came to her of my own volition." 

"Why?" The word whipped across the clearing like a dart. 

"Because a demon god, driven mad by an iron bullet in her chest, attacked my village," Derek snapped back, just as hard. "I was cursed by it, and would be dead now if not for Satomi's intervention. I am one of her wolves now, thanks to your village." 

Her face paled further, and Derek took some perverse pleasure in seeing the way her grip faltered, the arrow shifting away from him before she got herself under control. 

"How did she heal you?" Allison asked, her voice barely louder than a whisper. 

"None of your business, but she did," Derek said. "Now why did you ask for her favor?" 

Allison's eyes widened in surprise. "What? How do you—"

Derek let his fangs drop and his eyes flash. "Because I was a wolf the last time we met."

She lowered her bow entirely, peering at him curiously. " _You're_ the wolf I met on the full moon?" 

Derek nodded. "You gave me a rabbit and asked me to return it to Satomi. Now, why are you seeking the favor of the wolf god when your own village has been at war with this forest for years?" 

Allison finally took her arrow off the bow and stuck it in her quiver. "Did Satomi say anything about the gift?" 

Derek crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows. 

After a moment, Allison sighed. "I take it that means she didn't care for it." 

"She had some choice things to say about the people of Irontown," Derek said. "How are you different?" 

"Because I love this forest!" Allison flung out her hand. "I've practically grown up here, hunting and tracking, and every year it seems the forest loses more and more ground. I can...it feels like I can _feel_ it in my bones, the pain and loss. It _has_ to stop, but there's only so much I can do with my mother when the wolf tribe keeps attacking every caravan that comes too close to the border." 

Derek hesitated. He hadn't been on any raids, but he had no doubt that was only because he wasn't quite used to his wolf form yet. "They're just trying to do their duty and protect the forest." 

Allison stepped forward, her hands in fists at her sides. "Yes, and our people are just trying to get _home_. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to convince my mother and the others that we _shouldn't_ burn this forest to the ground when every caravan we send out leaves more widows and widowers behind?"

He thought of Laura and Cora, of his own mother, and how far _he_ would go to avenge their deaths. "I can imagine."

"I was hoping Satomi might speak to me, might help us build some kind of truce for safe passage, or something of the sort." Allison's shoulders sagged and her hands hung loose. "But I see the wolves aren't going to be any help there either." 

"That's why I'm here," Derek said. 

Allison looked skeptical. "Satomi sent you to treat with me?" 

"No," he admitted, "but there's more danger than just from the wolves. The boars in the south are gathering, preparing to head this way for revenge against what happened to Kali." When Allison looked puzzled, Derek explained, "The god who attacked my village, who cursed me, who was made a demon by your bullets." 

"Oh." Allison bit her lip. "So the boars are coming for us, then?"

"The boars are coming for whatever humans they can get their tusks on," Derek said. "And while I know you have ammunition, do you have enough to deal with an entire tribe? Especially an entire tribe that will turn to cursed demons the moment that iron pierces their hide? An entire tribe with the ability to kill everything they touch?" 

Allison swallowed hard and turned away from him to pace, but not before Derek saw the flash of fear in her eyes. Good. He needed someone else to see the urgency of this situation. 

"Getting Mother to give up the guns will be nearly impossible," she said softly. 

"If she doesn't, you'll have far bigger problems than just the wolves." 

Allison pressed her lips together and glared at him. "If I get my mother to quit encroaching on the forest, to allow some trees to be replanted, do you think you can get Satomi to let a few caravans pass without harassing them?" 

"I can try," Derek said. "If we don't find any more massacred apes, that might help my argument." 

Allison sighed. "I'll see what I can do." She held out her hand. "Do wolves shake on agreements?"

Derek rolled his eyes and reached for Allison's hand, preparing to make some quip about where he was raised, when he smelled the scent of gunpowder and heard a faint _click_.

He dove forward, taking Allison to the ground with him. A crack echoed through the clearing. A split second later, a bullet the size of Derek's fist struck a tree across from them, sending a shower of splinters to the ground. 

"My mother's guards!" Allison shoved at him. "Get out of here, _go!_ "

Derek scrambled to his feet, instinct telling him to make sure Allison was all right, but if those were her mother's guards, surely she would be. _He_ was the one in danger now, and he needed to go. 

He dug his feet into the ground to run just as three men and another woman appeared, all of them pointing huge-barreled guns directly at him. 

_Shit_.

Derek sniffed the air, scanning to see which one was most likely to shoot first, when he heard a howl from the trees to the right and Stiles dropped out of the branches, landing right on the woman. Her gun jerked up and to the left and went off, and Derek bolted in the other direction.

He dove for the nearest guard, striking the man at his waist and sending the gun spinning off into the trees. Losing the gun didn't even faze the guard; he pulled out a knife and Derek only just managed to block it. 

He grabbed the man's wrist, squeezing and shaking to make him drop the knife. 

Another gun went off, and the smell of powder and blood filled the air. A split-second later, white-hot pain shot through his side, the likes of which Derek hadn't felt since he'd gotten rid of the curse. 

Allison screamed. 

The guard kicked him in the side, and more pain exploded across Derek's body. He fell to the ground, coughed blood out onto the grass. 

He rolled over just in time to see another guard strike Stiles on the side of the head and hoist him over his shoulder, and the other two grabbed Allison and dragged her away. They were saying something about her mother, but Derek couldn't put the words together to understand them. 

"Stiles," he tried to say, tried to reach out and stop them, but all he could do was cough up more blood. 

The guards disappeared into the trees with Stiles and Allison, heading south. 

Heading to Irontown.

***

_Get up. Get up. Get up._

The words beat an unending rhythm in his head. His side ached and burned in turns, but every movement made Derek feel like someone had set his body aflame. From his tentative prodding, it seemed his wound had stopped bleeding and was on its way to healing, but he still couldn't get to his feet. 

_Get up. Get up. Stiles needs you. Get up._

Derek put his hand flat beside him and shakily pushed up, but his arm gave out before he even got himself a foot off the ground. He landed back against the grass with a soft thud, and he closed his eyes against the fresh wave of pain emanating from his side. 

_Try again. Get up. Get help. Stiles needs you._

He couldn't move, not now, not after having lost so much blood. But he needed to get help. Needed to get back to the pack. 

With what little strength he had, Derek took a deep breath and _howled_.

***

When Derek drifted back to consciousness, it was to Boyd nosing at his hand and Erica anxiously licking at his side. The forest was dark now. He didn't want to think about how long he'd been asleep.

Gingerly, he sat up and examined himself. The skin of his wound was angry and red, but at least it had mended and the pain had subsided to a dull throbbing. Erica kept licking at it. 

"It's fine." Derek tried to pull his ripped shirt back over the wound. "I'm fine." 

"You smell hurt," Erica grumbled, but she finally sat back. 

Boyd nudged his head under Derek's arm, and Derek used the help to get back to his feet. He was still a bit unsteady, but already the pain was fading faster. "They took Stiles," he said, and winced when his side twinged again. "The guards came—I think they were following Allison—and they took them both back to Irontown." He looked around, but the three of them were alone in the clearing. "Where's Satomi?" 

Erica and Boyd shared a look. Their silence said everything. 

Derek sagged against Boyd. Satomi had said she wouldn't help _him,_ but he hadn't realized that ultimatum would apply to Stiles as well. "We have to go back, tell her—" 

"We don't have time," Boyd said quietly. "By the time we run back to the den and return, it will be close to dawn."

Erica growled. "And the humans won't keep Stiles alive that long." 

"She said it might give him a chance to take his revenge on Lady Victoria," Boyd added. 

Derek covered his eyes with his free hand. Of course, of _course_ that's how they would think; get Stiles into Irontown and let him wreak havoc. If one of their pack killed Lady Victoria, the relations between the forest and the humans would deteriorate so fast it would make Derek's head spin. 

"We're getting him out," he said. "Before he can kill Lady Victoria and before they can kill him." 

Erica smiled and snapped her teeth. "Lead the way."


	9. Chapter 9

Irontown was a veritable fortress, two wooden-walled islands in a lake near the western border of the forest. Mountains rose around it on every side, and the only approach was by a thin road that hugged the mountainside. Either that, or they'd have to swim the lake.

The islands themselves had giant log spears underneath the walls, sticking out of the sides of this island like a forest of spikes. Steam rose from a large pyramid on top of the bigger island, and Derek could glimpse the orangey-red of cooking fires throughout the town. The stench of fire and iron filled the air, strengthening and then abating with the breeze. 

Even with enhanced vision, Derek couldn't see a watchtower from this distance, though he knew there had to be one. 

"We can't go in by the front gate," Boyd said. "They'll shoot us on sight." 

Derek nodded. "I hope you two can swim." 

Erica's teeth glinted in the light of the waning moon. "Oh, swimming's easy." 

Derek led them silently down the bank, and they slipped into the lake under the cover of dark. This far out, the lookouts would have to have supernatural sight to discern their heads from the water, but once they got closer they'd have to be more careful. 

The distance to the islands was further than he'd anticipated, and Derek's energy drained with the swim, but soon enough he dragged himself onto the sand of the smaller island. Boyd and Erica were right behind him, shaking lake water off their fur as soon as they were out. 

Derek put a finger to his lips and listened, but he heard no cry of alarm, no sounds that would indicate they'd been seen. He listened, memorizing the normal sounds of Irontown at night, and then motioned to Boyd and Erica to follow him around the island. Climbing up to the walls while avoiding the log spikes would be difficult, but they were small enough they could do it. First, they needed to find a place to get in. 

Halfway around the island, Derek heard the sound of the bird tweeting. 

From the way Boyd's ears twitched, he heard it too. "What's a gray sparrow doing this far out?" 

Derek frowned. "That's strange. They don't venture this far from the forest." 

The bird tweeted again, this time closer, as though it came from right above them. Derek stared at the walls forty feet up the side of the island, trying to find the bird, but he couldn't see one. 

At the base of the wall, something glittered too regularly to be natural. The tweets sounded again. 

"Someone wants our attention," Derek said.

"Should we trust them?" Boyd asked. 

"We don't have much choice." Derek grabbed a log. "Can you two climb?" 

Erica scampered up the slope, bouncing lightly from one log to another. "I think the real question is, can you?" 

Derek shook his head and climbed up after them. Boyd and Erica reached the top well before he did, and both paced impatiently alongside the wall.

Erica snapped her teeth. "What's taking you so long?"

Derek opened his mouth, with every intention of telling her to calm down. Instead, his right arm spasmed painfully, silencing the words, and he lost his grip on the slope. 

For one heart-stopping moment, he slid backward on the slick dirt. He dug in with his left hand, and only sheer luck kept him from tumbling back down to the lake. 

His arm wiggled, unnervingly familiar, and Derek broke out into a cold sweat. He was outside the borders of the forest. Satomi's magic didn't protect him here. 

The curse was back. 

"What's wrong?" Boyd called down.

Derek shook his head and took a few deep breaths. Stiles was his first priority, and that meant he had to get inside Irontown. "I'm fine," he called, as loudly as he dared. "I'll be right up." 

He climbed more carefully after that, wincing whenever he had to put too much weight on his right arm. Anger pounded in his blood, demanding his attention, but he ignored it. The curse would _not_ get a foothold in him, not tonight. 

Finally, he reached the top, and sagged against the wooden wall. 

"You're pale," Boyd said. 

Derek sighed. "I'm fine."

"You don't smell fine," Erica said. 

"I will _be_ fine," Derek amended. "We just need to get back to the forest as quickly as possible." 

They shared a look, but they didn't argue with him again. Good. 

Derek followed the wall a few more feet to where they'd seen the reflection, and found a small culvert through which water was draining. It looked like there had been a grate at one point, but someone had removed it, and the hole was just large enough that Boyd and Erica could get through, though it would be a tight squeeze. 

With a deep breath, Derek crept his way through first. If there _were_ guards waiting on the other side, he wanted Boyd and Erica to have some warning. 

There were no guards. Instead, Derek found himself face-to-face with Allison, dressed all in black and holding a finger to her mouth. 

Derek nodded and held his hand to the side and shook it slightly, signally Boyd and Erica to stay outside for now. 

Allison pulled him into the shadow of a building. "Stiles is in the jail," she whispered. "They're going to try him at dawn for crimes against the people of Irontown, and if he's found guilty—which he will be—Mother's going to have him executed." 

A lump of fear solidified in Derek's stomach. "We have to get him out of there."

"The jail is this way." Allison pointed down an alley. "I don't think we can take the wolves with us. Lydia and Scott are distracting the guards, but I'm not sure how discreet two gigantic white wolves will be." 

Derek tensed at the two new names. "Who are they?" 

Allison gave him a flat look. "My friends, whom I would trust with my life. Now can we _please_ move?" 

A rush of anger swept through him, and the skin on his arm started to vibrate. Derek clenched his fist and held his arm tighter against his side. "Erica and Boyd are hunters. They can move quickly and quietly, and we may need their help." 

Allison exhaled sharply. "Can they wait here?" 

The words had scarcely faded from the air when Erica had wiggled under the wall and trotted over to them. "Boyd will keep watch outside." She bared her teeth at Allison. "And I'll find out how that pretty flesh tastes if you betray us."

"Fine," Allison said. "But we need to go, _now._ "

Derek gestured toward the main road. "Lead the way."

Allison crept toward the edge of the building, looked both ways, and then motioned Derek and Erica closer. Derek followed, his whole body tensing the closer they got to the open space between the wooden buildings. 

Allison led them across the street and into the shadows of another alley, then down and around another set of buildings. Even though he paid close attention to the turns she made, Derek wasn't sure he could make it back to Boyd the same way they'd come. 

The lack of scents and sounds also troubled him. He could smell Erica because she smelled like wet dog, could smell the fire and forge in the town, but he could no longer smell the multiple layers or hear any heartbeat but his own. He'd only had those abilities for a handful of days, but he'd become dependent on them. To have them gone was unnerving, to say the least. 

Allison stopped so fast Derek nearly ran her over. "Damn it," she muttered. "There's a guard outside the jail."

"Just one?" Erica growled. "I can take care of him." 

"No killing," Derek said sternly. 

Erica blinked up at him innocently—well, as innocently as a wolf could look. "I meant leading him on a merry chase, of course."

Sure she had. Derek frowned disapprovingly. "Don't get caught."

Neither his look nor his tone had any effect on Erica whatsoever. She nuzzled his side affectionately. "Don't worry! I'll meet you back by Boyd."

With that, she was off, a bright white blur against the shadows of the buildings. A moment later, she was back in the street, howling, and the guard was on her heels, cursing and raising an alarm. 

Derek's heart jumped into his throat, and he had to swallow back his fear. Erica was strong, and she knew how to take care of herself. She would be fine.

Allison tugged at his sleeve. "We have to hurry." 

He followed her across the alley to the jail, a dark wooden building with only one flickering lantern light emanating from a barred window. Derek half-expected Allison to come up with a key; instead, she took two long picks out of her hair and set to work on the latch. 

"You're breaking in?" he asked

She snorted. "Of course. It's not like they give me a key just for being Lady Victoria's daughter." The latch clicked, and Allison pushed the door open. "Now stay quiet. The guards should be gone, but that's no reason to let anyone know we're here, is it?" 

Inside, most of the jail was in shadow, illuminated only by the single lantern. Derek went immediately toward the back, where he could see the barred cells. Only one was occupied, Stiles's familiar lanky form sprawled over a stained cot.

"Stiles!" he hissed. 

Stiles flailed to his feet. "Derek? What are you doing here?"

Derek scanned the barred door until he found the lock. "I'm getting you out of here."

"Derek!" 

He turned at the sound of his name, and Allison tossed him the keys. Derek snagged them out of the air and started testing each one in the door. 

Stiles wrapped his hands around the bars, distractingly close to Derek's face. "You're trusting _her?_ "

Now really wasn't a good time to explain. They'd have this conversation once they got back to the forest. "Yes." 

"She's Lady Victoria's daughter," Stiles whispered, though it was likely loud enough Allison could hear if she were listening. 

Derek tried another key. "I'm well aware." 

For a moment it was quiet, just the sound of the keys scratching at the lock, and then Stiles said, "You shouldn't have come."

Derek snapped his head up to meet Stiles's eyes. "No. I should've." 

"What are they going to do if they catch you?" 

He exhaled harshly and tried another key that didn't work, damn it. "The same thing they'll do to you if you stay here. We're going. Now." 

As if the gods themselves agreed with that statement, his next key fit the lock, clicking when he turned it. Derek grabbed the heavy metal door and hauled it back, far enough to get Stiles out, and then he shut it again and threw the keys back to Allison. She caught them easily and hung them back up by one of the guard stations. 

Stiles ran over to a cubby on the far wall, returning with his knife and spear and a look of grim determination on his face. 

Derek made to take one of the weapons from him, but Stiles jerked away and belted his knife back to his waist without letting go of his spear. 

Just what they needed before they tried to get out of here, Stiles being fully armed. 

They joined Allison back by the front door, where she was keeping watch. "No one's out there. I think most of them are chasing Erica," she said softly. "We should be able to get you back to the wall." 

"Chasing Erica?" Stiles repeated, anger tinging his tone. 

The anger resonated with Derek's own, and his arm throbbed with the curse. Derek rested his left hand on Stiles's shoulder in an effort to calm them both. "She volunteered to go. She'll meet us at the wall." 

"She's brave," Allison said. 

"Or foolish," Stiles muttered. 

Derek nudged at them both. "Let's go."

Allison nodded and slipped out the door. A moment later, she motioned them to follow her. 

Derek grabbed Stiles's arm and pulled him along. Stiles made a slight sound of irritation, but he allowed himself to be pulled. 

That was, until they reached the main street. 

Derek had just peered around the corner next to Allison, checking to make sure their way was clear, when Stiles's arm jerked from his grasp. By the time he turned to see what was going on, Stiles was halfway down the street, merrily lit by the lanterns at each intersection.

Derek bolted after him. "Shit!" 

Allison was right beside him. "What is he _doing?_ "

Derek didn't have the slightest clue, unless Stiles knew of some way out of the town other than what Allison had shown him. But that didn't seem right; Stiles wasn't from Irontown, had no reason to know something like that. Was he going after Erica? Or...

He felt like he'd been soaked in ice water. "Where's your mother?" 

Allison paled. "You don't think—"

But all Derek could hear was the venom in Stiles's voice when he'd spoken of Lady Victoria before and his determination to see her dead. What he'd give to do it himself. 

The voice of the curse clamored in the back of his mind, beating in time with the pulse of the black mark he knew was under his sleeve. 

_Let him do it, let him kill her, let the streets run red with her blood, it's her fault this happened, all her fault—_

__No. No, he wasn't going to let it happen. If Stiles killed Lady Victoria, Allison wouldn't be able to protect him from the guards. Hell, she'd probably arrest him herself.

In his mind's eye, he saw Stiles being captured again, dragged back to the cell for a trial. Saw him being hanged for murder, body twitching in midair as he died. Thought about never smelling Stiles's bright scent again, and how bland his world would be.

Something else roared through him, separate from the curse or maybe even encouraged by it, and Derek ran faster, a growl rumbling at the back of his throat. 

Stiles was fast, but he was still human. And that just put them on even ground, now. 

In front of them, Stiles used his momentum to bounce off a building and change direction. 

"Split up," Derek ordered. "Cut him off."

Surprisingly, Allison listened, darting to the right and down another alley. Derek followed Stiles. 

The alley was darker than the street, and Derek's vision took a moment to adjust. He could hear the rapid thudding of Stiles's footsteps, growing further away from him. His side burned with exertion, but Derek kept moving forward. 

At the other end of the alley, Allison appeared. 

Stiles skidded to a stop, looking between her and Derek. Then his mouth set into a grim line and his gaze went up the side of the nearest building. 

_Shit_. If he got on top of the buildings, Derek wasn't sure he could follow. 

He dove forward, tackling Stiles to the ground before he could scale the wall. 

Stiles cursed and struggled, but even though Derek didn't have his wolf strength, he had gravity and a good thirty pounds of muscle on Stiles. 

"Get _off_ of me, you ass!" Stiles spat venomously. 

Derek shook his head. "You can't do it."

"Can't do what?" Stiles's voice took on a dangerous tone.

"You were planning on killing Lady Victoria, weren't you?" 

Stiles bared his teeth. "So what if I am? What business is it of yours? Get off of me before they catch both of us!" 

Derek shifted his weight so he could better pin Stiles to the ground. "Are you going to go after her?" 

Stiles glared. "When do you think I'm going to get this chance again?" 

_Let him do it, let him kill her, let him—_

__Derek gritted his teeth and pushed the voice away, but it hammered at his mind, trying to drag him into a pit of fury and revenge.

Stiles squirmed beneath him. "What's happening to your arm?!" 

It was writhing, Derek knew that, but he hadn't seen how far it was bulging, straining at the fabric of his shirt. A dark haze emanated from his arm, stretching out to engulf them both. 

"It's the curse," Derek said quietly. 

"The..." Stiles looked up at him, eyes huge. "But you were—Mother's Bite, that's why—"

Derek shook his head, Satomi's warning coming back to him. "Not outside the forest."

Stiles's eyes grew even wider, if that was possible. "But it will _kill you_." 

_I know_ , Derek thought. He focused on trying to pull back the curse, but it wasn't any more effective now than it had been when Kali had first cursed him. 

"You need to get out of here." Stiles pushed at him. "Get back to the forest." 

"Not without you," Derek forced out. "I'm not leaving this town without you." 

Stiles stared at him, mouth moving like he wanted to say something, but didn't know what. It was perhaps the first time Derek had seen him speechless.

He felt he should say something, felt he should _do_ something, but he couldn't move, not with Stiles looking at him like that. 

"We need to leave, now." Allison's voice broke the spell. "The guards are going to realize you're gone soon." 

Derek nodded to show he'd heard, but he didn't take his eyes off Stiles. "Are you coming with us?" 

Myriad emotions ran over Stiles's face, before settling on something strangely blank. "Yes. I'll go with you." 

Derek pushed himself up, and finally gave in and gripped his cursed arm with his free hand. It didn't help much, but the pain of it helped him regain some control. Still, they needed to get back to the wall and Boyd and Erica. 

Stiles scrambled to his feet, and for one heart-stopping second, Derek thought he'd run off again. Instead, he bounced from one foot to the other. "Which way is out, then?" 

Allison jerked her head toward one of the buildings. "This way. Follow me." 

They did. Stiles looked angry about it, his face drawn into a grim mask, but he followed her. Occasionally, Derek caught him glancing back, eyes trained on Derek's arm, where the curse still wiggled and writhed. 

Derek just gripped his arm tighter and prayed no one would come upon them. He wasn't sure how well he could fight right now. 

He could have sobbed with relief when he saw Erica's familiar white coat sitting beside the hole where they'd come in. Derek didn't have the faintest idea how she'd kept away from the guards, and right now, he didn't care. He could ask her later. 

Erica spotted them and sprang across the alley to land on Stiles. "You idiot!" She licked his face. "What were you thinking, getting captured like that?" 

Stiles made a face and shoved her away. "We have to get back to the forest."

"Yes, we _do_." Erica looked pointedly at Derek. "How's your arm?" 

Derek tried to smile, but he was pretty sure it looked pained. "It'll be better soon." 

_When we're back in the borders of the forest_ , he thought, but from the way Erica's eyes fixed on the curse, he guessed he didn't have to. 

He turned back to Allison. "Thank you. I know—"

She cut him off with a swipe of her hand. "I know. We don't have time. Take them and get out of here. I'll block up the culvert behind you."

Derek nodded and bowed quickly, then ran back to the hole. Erica had scrambled through, but Stiles still stood beside it. He gripped his spear so tightly Derek could see his hand shake. 

Derek leaned against the wall, taking a moment to breathe. He jerked his chin at the hole. "After you."

Stiles's gaze flicked from the hole to him, and his eyes narrowed.

Derek winced at a fresh wave of pain, and tightened his grip on his arm. "I told you. I'm not leaving without you." 

Stiles cursed and shoved himself through the hole. Derek took one final look back at Allison, who smiled at him, small and sad. 

He had no idea what punishment she'd face if it were discovered that she'd aided their escape, but Derek wasn't going to forget her help anytime soon. 

The shouting guards came closer, and Derek gave her one last nod before he scrambled through the culvert and out of Irontown.


	10. Chapter 10

Derek spent most of the swim back across the lake fully convinced they would be caught. With every breath, he expected a bullet to tear through his back or feel the bite of an arrow between his shoulder blades. It didn't help that he was already exhausted from fighting the curse. 

Not even halfway to the forest, Boyd swam up next to him and got his head under Derek's arm. Derek tried to protest, but Boyd just looked sideways at him and bared his teeth. 

All right. Derek wouldn't argue, then. And much as he was loath to admit it, he needed the help. He wasn't sure he could make it across the lake on his own. 

Nearby, Stiles swam with one arm draped over Erica's shoulder, and they appeared to be arguing fiercely, but Derek couldn't hear a word they were saying. The water kept the worst of the curse's pain at bay, but he was still too far from the forest for it to be gone completely. 

When they finally staggered onto the opposite beach and back into the forest, his pain vanished completely and the sounds and smells of the world surged back full-force. Derek nearly collapsed under the weight of his relief.

Said relief only lasted until Stiles's hand slammed into his shoulder and Derek toppled into a tree trunk. 

"What the _hell_ were you thinking?" Stiles yelled.

Derek bit back a groan and pushed himself up off the tree. "What was I thinking? What the hell were _you_ thinking?"

Stiles stood before him, vibrating with anger. "I had a perfect chance to take care of Lady Victoria and you had to go and _ruin_ it!" 

"You were going to get yourself killed!" Derek shouted. "Did you really think you could kill her and get away with it?"

"It wasn't your job to stop me!" 

"Someone had to!" 

Stiles's hands curled into fists. "Do you have _any_ idea what she's done?" 

Derek let the words hang in the air, unsure if he should reveal what Satomi had told him, and decided to hell with it. "She killed your mother, didn't she?" 

Stiles jerked as if Derek had slapped him, and a different scent—older, sadder—rolled over him before it sharpened into anger once again. "If you knew, then why did you stop me? She deserves to die!" 

"Is that what your mother would've wanted?" 

"Don't you _dare_." Stiles was even closer now, mere inches from Derek's face. "Don't you dare use her against me. You didn't know her. You don't know _anything_." 

"They were going to _kill you_ , Stiles." Derek straightened his back, drawing himself up to his full height, but he was scarcely half an inch taller than Stiles and Stiles wasn't backing down. "They were going to kill you if we hadn't gotten you out of there." 

Stiles rolled his eyes. "Oh, and you care so much about that." 

" _Yes_ ," Derek said, and surprised himself with how much he meant it. 

Stiles gaped, mouth moving, but no sound coming out. 

Derek took the opportunity to step forward, and for the first time, Stiles took a half step back. "It should've been me. They should've taken me, not you. Why were you in the clearing?" 

Stiles scoffed and looked away. "I should've just let them take you, then." 

"But you didn't." Derek stepped forward again, and Stiles took another step back. "You attacked them when they attacked. You followed me even though you knew I was going to meet Allison again." 

Stiles still didn't look him in the eye. "Someone has to keep you from getting yourself killed, idiot." 

"So you _do_ care." 

" _No_." Stiles's heartbeat skipped on the word. "I don't care about you." 

"Then why did you come with me when I left the town? Why didn't you go after Lady Victoria again?" 

"Because you're a stubborn ass who brought back his _curse_ in some stupid effort to get me out of the jail!" Stiles shouted. "You wouldn't have left unless I did!" 

Derek nodded. "I wouldn't have." 

"See?" Stiles shoved him again, but Derek held his ground. "You're a stubborn ass, you're an _idiot_ doing something like that—" 

Derek caught his hand. "Because I care about you." 

Admitting it aloud made him feel a little like he'd just stepped off a cliff, like his stomach was suspended in midair. He wasn't sure if Stiles would know or understand what it meant. 

Stiles opened his mouth, like he was going to protest, but he didn't make a sound. He also didn't yank his hand from Derek's. The air between them coalesced, suddenly thick enough Derek was having trouble breathing. 

"I hate you," Stiles said, but his voice was shaky and held none of the fury it had earlier.

_Lie,_ Derek thought. He rubbed his thumb over Stiles's wrist. "I know."

"You should've left me behind," Stiles whispered. 

Derek shook his head. "Never." 

They were standing close now, not touching but for Derek's hand on Stiles's wrist, but close enough that their chests just barely brushed with each inhale, close enough that Derek could smell the way the sharpness faded from Stiles's scent, replaced with something warm and indefinable, something that made him want to lean forward and just bury his face in it. 

He rubbed his thumb over the inside of Stiles's wrist again, watched as his pink lips parted in a faint gasp that nevertheless sounded thunderous to Derek's ears. If he moved just a few inches closer...

Derek closed his eyes, took one more deep breath, and then made himself let go of Stiles's wrist and step back, breaking the spell that had been building between them. "We should get back to the den," he said, voice much rougher than he'd anticipated. 

Stiles continued to stare at him, mouth slack, an utterly indecipherable expression on his face. Derek had never wanted to kiss someone so much in his life. 

Then Stiles shook himself, and he walked over and picked up his spear from the ground. Derek looked around, but Boyd and Erica had apparently left them some time before, already on their way back to the den. 

He clenched and unclenched his fist, hating how cold his hand felt now that he wasn't holding Stiles, regretting that he hadn't leaned forward for a kiss. But it wasn't right to do it if he didn't know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Stiles wanted it too. 

Derek took a deep breath, trying to clear his mind with the clean scent of the forest, but all he smelled was Stiles. 

He rubbed a hand over his face, suddenly drained to his very marrow from everything that had happened tonight. All he wanted to do was drop where he stood, but they couldn't stay this close to Irontown; they had to get back to the den. 

Stiles shouldered past him, elbowing Derek's arm. "Get moving, before you fall asleep." 

Derek growled, but there wasn't any heat to it. He wasn't sure any of his growls would have any effect on Stiles now. Not that they really had before. 

He followed Stiles through the forest, only halfheartedly paying attention to where they were going. Derek had no idea how far they'd walked when he noticed two things: one, they weren't heading back to the den, and two, Stiles hadn't left his side, had been keeping pace with Derek through the forest instead of running ahead and looking back impatiently, or following from a distance. 

The second one surprised him more than the first. 

"Where are we going?" Derek asked. 

"Somewhere closer than the den." 

Sure enough, only a few minutes later, the scent of the forest changed, became heavy with water. And a moment after that, they entered the clearing with the pond, the one where Derek had awakened his first morning in the forest. 

Just stepping into the clearing felt soothing, like the magic in the air wiped away the last vestiges on the night's stress. Two kodamas appeared on the branches above their heads and rattled at them before fading back into the tree. 

"I stay here sometimes," Stiles said. "It's safe." 

Derek nodded, wanted to ask why, but something in Stiles's voice gave him pause. "Thank you," he said instead. 

Stiles smiled, small and genuine, and then it was gone before Derek could blink twice. He tossed his spear aside and took off his cloak, spreading it on the ground. "Just don't wake me before the sun."

Derek had no intention of waking himself before the sun, so he just settled on the ground a few feet from Stiles and lay back, staring at the swaying branches above their head and the kodamas running across them.

Before he fell asleep, Derek realized this was the first time he'd actually seen Stiles smile.


	11. Chapter 11

Derek woke the next morning not because he was overheated (though he was), but because a feather-light touch skated over his eyebrows, dragging him gradually to wakefulness. 

He didn't have to open his eyes to know it was Stiles; he smelled the scent of sleep and sun and forest with each breath, recognized the familiar beat of his heart. 

The gentle touch stopped and the air shifted, like Stiles was moving away from him. "You're awake." 

Derek stifled a groan and opened his eyes. Stiles sat barely an arm's length away from him, staring out at the pond. His gaze kept skating back over to Derek, and then darting back to the pond, like he was afraid Derek would notice him looking. 

Derek sat up and stretched, wincing at the popping noise his back made. "You didn't have to stop." 

"Stop what?" Stiles said, his heartbeat ticking up with the words. 

Derek rolled his eyes, but decided against pointing out the evasion. Something had changed between them last night, and he worried that by pushing it, he would only drive Stiles away. 

Instead, he leaned back on his arms, casually placing his hands closer to Stiles. 

"I didn't want her to bring you here," Stiles said, his eyes still trained on the pond. "This place is sacred. Humans don't belong." 

Derek thought of how angry Stiles had been that first morning, the way his amber eyes had flashed between condescension and mocking. 

"The others don't come here as often as I do," Stiles continued. "It's my favorite place in the forest. Feels peaceful. Like it's safe." He stood up and wiped his hands against his pants. "You can come back whenever you want."

Derek heard _This is my place, and I am sharing it with you._ Another tenuous thread of trust built between them, another brick taken out of their walls. 

He stood and bowed. "Thank you." 

Stiles's cheeks turned a brighter pink. "We should go back to the den. Mother won't be happy." 

The reminder made Derek's heart sink. He'd disobeyed her thoroughly. Satomi would likely be furious with him. Probably with both of them, all things considered. 

But if he hadn't gone, Stiles would no longer be standing in front of him, looking slightly pleased and absolutely beautiful in the morning sunlight. 

Derek was willing to endure the wrath of a god for that.

***

Satomi was angry with both of them when they finally returned, but it wasn't as harsh or as long-lasting as Derek had expected. Boyd and Erica had already told her most of what had happened, and Derek found he and Stiles were on the receiving end of a shrewd look had Derek, at least, squirming. He half-thought Satomi would take him aside and lay out exactly what he needed to do in order to court Stiles properly, but instead she walked away with another vague comment about it being "interesting." 

What was more interesting was the way their relationship changed. Or, it didn't really change—Stiles was as combative as ever—but he no longer stayed halfway across the clearing, glaring at Derek from afar. Instead, he crouched next to Derek, knocking their elbows and shoulders together, gently kneeing him in the side. It was like he wanted to be noticed, wanted to be touching Derek, but wanted to be casual about it. 

Derek didn't mind in the least.

However, after Stiles knocked into him one too many times while he was cooking over the fire, Derek did have to rest a hand on his knee to keep him still. He didn't take his hand away even after Stiles ceased moving, though. And from the small, pleased smile on his face, Stiles noticed. 

Stiles wasn't the only one. Erica had a particular gleam in her eye every time she looked over, but any time it seemed she would say something, Boyd nipped at her tail and distracted her. 

Derek made a mental note to bring Boyd the largest deer he could find. Whatever was happening between him and Stiles was new and different, so much so Derek felt a bit like he was walking a tightrope through a pitch black room. If Erica teased either of them for it, the rope could snap and they'd be back to where they'd started, something Boyd seemed to understand without Derek having to say a word. 

The only thing Satomi felt moved to say about it was well after dinner, after Stiles had fallen sound asleep against Erica and Boyd, while Derek was still putting out the fire. 

"You do understand it has been more than a decade since Stiles spent any significant time around humans," Satomi said, her voice pitched softly enough that the others wouldn't hear. 

Derek stiffened at the insinuation, and threw another handful of sand onto the embers. "I know. I wouldn't—I'm not going to—" He was still figuring out his _own_ feelings, and he most certainly wasn't going to approach Stiles until he could explain it, until they _both_ knew their feelings.

"I simply meant he's more accustomed to how wolves court. I want you to be patient with him," she said, her voice tinged with...amusement?

Derek looked up from the fire to see Satomi's lips curling in the barest smile. 

"Did you think I meant to warn you away, son of Talia?" She yawned, showing off every one of her teeth. "Threaten to harm you, should you hurt him?" 

Derek went back to tossing sand on the fire, his neck far hotter than the embers. "You consider him your son. It stands to reason you would be protective." 

"You do not strike me as the type to be careless or callous in this regard." Satomi's tone went sardonic. "In other regards, perhaps, but not this one."

All he could do was nod. "I don't wish him to come to harm. I wish even less to be the cause of it," Derek said quietly. That, at least, he was absolutely certain of. 

Satomi nodded, as if that was all she needed to hear. "I imagine your courtship will be...interesting." 

Derek scowled at the fire and hoped the heat from it covered up his embarrassment at the conversation. "I don't like it when you use that word." 

Satomi snorted in what might have been a laugh, and flicked her tails. "But it is such a _useful_ one."

***

"You should practice your shift more," Stiles said, bouncing on the balls of his feet.

Derek cracked open one eye and frowned up at him. It was midday and it was warm and he didn't particularly want to move from his napping spot. "Why do you say that?" 

"The full moon comes once a month," Stiles pointed out, as though Derek weren't already well aware of the fact. "Last time you ran halfway to Irontown and nearly got yourself captured before you remembered who you were." 

Derek sat up on his elbows and glared. "I did not 'nearly get captured'." 

"Still." Stiles continued bouncing. "There's but two weeks before the next one. We ought to go and practice at least _once_ before it. Maybe a few times. And since you seem to do better with me than with anyone else, I should go with you." 

"Go?" Derek repeated. "Why wouldn't we do it—"

Stiles's face fell and Derek cut himself off, and tried to go back over the conversation to see where he'd gone wrong. "What did you have in mind?" he asked, hoping that would give him a clue. 

Stiles shrugged and looked away, doing an utterly terrible job of looking like he didn't care about Derek's answer. "I thought we might go to the pond. Give you some privacy while you're practicing your shift." 

_Privacy_. Did that mean Stiles wanted to spend time with him alone? Derek's heart sped up at the thought. "That sounds like a good idea." 

Stiles's smile didn't last long before he squashed it, but Derek had seen it. He pressed his lips together to keep his own smile from spreading. 

Stiles kicked at his legs. "Then get up, lazybones. It's a long walk."

***

The walk to the pond was different from other times Derek had been alone with Stiles. Sometimes Stiles darted ahead, yelling at Derek to chase him. Other times he stayed close, constantly moving, talking, roughly elbowing Derek and smiling as he did. 

It was terribly reminiscent of the way Erica and Boyd played, and Derek had to fight to keep from smiling too widely. 

Finally, he grabbed Stiles's hand and held it, threading their fingers together. To his surprise and pleasure, Stiles didn't pull away or run off, but looked down at their hands with his own silly smile. 

It was ridiculous to be so happy about it, to have his heart bubble warmly just because they held _hands_ , just because Stiles wanted to be alone with him. 

They stayed hand-in-hand the rest of the way to the pond. 

They had scarcely stepped over the border between the pond and the rest of the forest when Stiles froze, his grip tightening. Derek frowned, followed Stiles's gaze to see what was wrong. 

There, by the edge of the pool, someone had set three dead rabbits, with a small piece of paper folded on top of them. 

"Someone's been here," Stiles whispered. 

Derek immediately pushed Stiles behind him and advanced on the rabbits. He didn't smell anyone else, and there was no sign anyone had come this way. 

He picked up the piece of paper, flipped it open. 

_I must speak with you as soon as I can. If you still want peace, you know where to find me._  
_-Allison_

Derek straightened, even as the weight of the world crashed onto his shoulders. "It's from Allison." 

Stiles jerked away from him. " _Argent?_ " He glanced around the clearing. "How did she get here? How does she know of this place?" 

Derek smelled again. The paper smelled of Allison, as did the rabbits, but he couldn't find any other trace of her. "I'm not sure. If she came this way, she's managed to hide her scent." 

Stiles made a face down at the rabbits, as though he could set them on fire with his mere gaze. "Another one of her foolish gifts. Mother won't listen." 

Derek stared back at the note. "This gift isn't for Satomi." 

"Then who..." Stiles trailed off. " _You?_ She made a gift for you?" 

Something in his voice had Derek snapping his gaze away from the note. Stiles backed away from him, eyes wide and hurt.

"No." Derek dropped the note and made to grab Stiles's hand, but Stiles yanked away from him. "No, she wants to talk again. Try for peace between our people, that's all." 

Stiles laughed mirthlessly. "You truly believe that? She gives you three rabbits so you can talk about _peace?_ "

Derek was not entirely sure _where_ they had gone wrong, but something _had_ gone wrong and he needed to figure out what it was. "Yes. The last time she gave me a rabbit for Satomi. It's only a sign of respect." 

" _Respect_." Stiles bit out the word like it tasted sour on his tongue. "She comes to _my_ pond and leaves _three_ rabbits for you, not just one like she did with Mother, oh no, and you say it's just respect."

"It _is_ , it's just...wait." Derek looked down at the rabbits, and then back to Stiles. "How do wolves court?" 

Now Stiles frowned at him, but confusion was better than hurt. "What?"

_Oh gods_. He was really doing this. Derek stepped closer, wincing when Stiles took another step away from him. "Courting. When you make your intentions known that you'd like to seek someone as a...a spouse. Partner." Derek gestured to the rabbits. "Do you give them gifts like that?" 

The confusion cleared from Stiles's face, but he deliberately looked away. Well, that was answer enough. 

Derek lunged forward again, this time catching Stiles's hand. Stiles yanked his hand back, but it was only a halfhearted attempt. Derek took heart from that. 

He pulled Stiles closer—or pulled himself closer to Stiles, so that they were only a hairsbreadth apart—and cupped his cheek, rubbing his thumb across the moles there. 

Stiles stilled under his hands, and he stared at Derek, wide honey-brown eyes flicking from his mouth to his eyes, like he wasn't sure where to look. His breath came in small, sharp gasps, and his heartbeat bounced like a rabbit.

Derek's own pulse wasn't much calmer. He felt lightheaded and dizzy, like he wasn't getting enough air. But Stiles wasn't pulling away from him, and right now, that felt like enough. 

"This is how humans make their intentions known," Derek said, with far more confidence than he felt. 

He prayed to every god who would listen that he wasn't messing this up, and then he closed the last bit of distance between them to place a kiss on Stiles's lips. 

He made it as gentle as he could, because he didn't want to scare Stiles away, but oh, his lips were soft and warm and just a little pliant, and they tasted like the fruit he'd been eating for his midday meal. Derek wanted to chase the taste, wanted Stiles to open for him, but Stiles was still stiff as a board under his hands. Doubt wormed its way in, and Derek drew back, made himself let go and step away. 

Stiles was still staring at him like he wasn't entirely sure what had happened. 

Gods above, he _had_ messed this up. "I'm sorry," Derek said quickly. "I'm sorry, I should have asked if I could—"

Stiles jumped across the distance between them, and Derek caught him out of shock and instinct. Long legs wrapped around his waist and two arms around his neck, and before Derek could entirely parse what was happening, Stiles's mouth was on his, hot and insistent. 

_Oh._

It was the only word Derek could form in his mind.

Stiles nipped at his lower lip and sucked on it, and Derek's knees wobbled under the force of the assault. He staggered back until he landed against a tree, and then spun them around so he could press Stiles against it and put all his focus into kissing him back. 

He changed the angle of their heads, just a little, and it was like everything slotted into place: their mouths, their noses, their bodies, everything clicked together and Derek found himself melting into the kiss. 

Stiles's fingers tangled in his hair, sending a thrill of pleasure over his scalp and down his spine, and Derek groaned into his mouth, had to pull back to breathe.

He dragged in air like it had been years since he'd drawn a breath, rather than mere seconds, and tried to pull his thoughts back to something resembling coherency, but that was nigh impossible with Stiles in front of him, pretty pink lips swollen from their kisses and the pale skin around his mouth rubbed red from the stubble on Derek's face. 

Derek leaned back forward to kiss the raw skin as gently as he could, soothing it. Stiles tightened his fingers in Derek's hair and squirmed against him. 

And _that_ was when Derek realized how hard he was—how hard they _both_ were—and nearly bit through his lip with how good it felt. "Oh _gods_." 

Stiles panted in his ear. "That...did you like that?" 

All Derek could do was nod, because speech had actually deserted him. 

"Good. Me too," Stiles said, and rolled his hips again. 

Derek cursed and dropped his head to Stiles's shoulder, trying to breathe properly, but that was impossible when the air around him smelled like Stiles and sex, when Stiles kept rolling his hips and making the most arousing little whimpers with each movement. 

One hand slipped out of Derek's hair and down to his hip, Stiles clutching at him like he wanted to pull him closer. "Derek, please."

Derek groaned at the plea, and met the next roll of Stiles's hips with one of his own. Stiles practically sobbed out his name, and Derek lifted his head to capture his mouth in another kiss. 

He lost himself in the heat of Stiles's mouth, the pressure of long fingers on his hips, the small gasps and whimpers and moans, the scent of arousal so thick Derek could have choked on it. He didn't want to pull away, didn't want to move, even though some distant part of his mind knew it would chafe later, knew it would be better if he could just get his hand on them both...

Stiles moved faster, hips rocking in little jerks, whining like he was chasing something and just couldn't find it. Derek shushed him, petting a hand down his side in an effort to calm him some, but Stiles let his head drop to Derek's shoulder and whined again, louder. 

_Hell._ Derek kissed his sweaty cheek. "I've got you," he murmured, and reached between them to rub Stiles's cock through the thin fabric he wore. 

Stiles's fingers dug into his skin so hard Derek swore he could feel it bruising, and then his whole body trembled and the hot, bitter smell of come hit Derek's nose. His own orgasm hit him a split second later. 

He hadn't known he could come just from a _scent_ , but apparently he could, either because he was a wolf or because the scent was Stiles or some combination of both that Derek didn't particularly want to examine right now, not when his whole body quivered with the effort of holding them both upright. 

Stiles's legs slipped from his waist, and Derek took that as a cue to clumsily lower him to the ground. He dropped to his knees, but even that was too much for his legs, and he rolled sideways, splayed on the ground, trying to breathe. 

Gods, they hadn't even gotten their clothes off, and Derek was prepared to declare that the best orgasm he'd ever had in his life. 

Stiles flopped on the ground next to him, breathing just as hard as Derek. "That's how you make your intentions known? By mating?" 

Derek closed his eyes and shook his head. His limbs felt like jelly. "No. Just the kissing. The...the mating is different." 

"Oh." Stiles rolled over to rest his chin on Derek's chest, eyes sparkling with mischief. "So the kiss was you making known your intention to mate with me?" 

Derek carded his fingers through Stiles's hair. "Well, court you, but yes." 

Stiles half-closed his eyes and leaned into the touch. "Is courting different than mating?" 

"Yes, but courting tends to lead to mating." 

Stiles beamed. "Well, I'm glad we skipped that and got straight to the mating." 

Derek laughed faintly. "Have I successfully made my intentions known, then?" 

Stiles nodded into his chest. "And I accept them." 

"Good." Derek hesitated, not sure how to broach the next question. "Are you still...jealous?" 

"Jealous?" Stiles sat up, cheeks turning pink under the red paint on his face. "Why would you—I wasn't _jealous_."

A skip of his heartbeat belied his words. "Stiles." Derek caught his hand. "Truly. I never had any intention of courting Allison, nor she me. That isn't why she left the note." 

Stiles scoffed and pulled away, eyes snapping with anger. "You really think Allison Argent wants _peace?_ "

So much for the afterglow. Derek sat up as well, trying to keep his voice calm. "Yes. I do. For the gods' sake, she helped me save your life. The least I could do is listen to her." 

Stiles tucked his knees into his chest. "Why do you care so much?"

The question caught Derek off-guard. "About saving you?" The answer to that had to be obvious. 

"No. About," Stiles frowned at the pond, "about peace. The humans are the reason you were cursed in the first place! Why don't you want revenge?"

_Because I remember how it felt, and it terrifies me still_. Derek shook his head and rubbed his hand over his face, trying to gather his thoughts. He wasn't sure he could explain it to Stiles, not in a way that would make sense.

"You didn't see what happened with Kali," he said finally. "Everything she touched died. She left a trail of dead grass and trees twenty feet wide coming out of the forest by our village. She was absolutely mad with rage, would have destroyed our entire village if I hadn't been able to stop her. And even then..." Derek trailed off and gripped his arm, where the memory of pain and writhing skin still lived. "Now imagine not just one boar, but five. Or ten. Twenty or more. No one could hope to hold them back."

He glanced over, but Stiles's gaze was once again fixed on the pond, hands fisted so tightly Derek could see them turning white. 

He dropped his own gaze to the ground, ran his fingers over the warm grass. "If we don't do something, the people of Irontown are going to destroy this forest. And not just the forest, but everyone else who lives around it. If talking to Allison can help prevent that, then yes, I'm going to talk to her as long as I need. Besides...I think my mother would want that." 

Stiles snapped around to face him, mouth pressed into a thin line. "How can you know that?" 

Derek shrugged. "I can't. But when I think of her, think of her voice, that's what I hear. I'm not good at diplomacy, not like she was, but...I'll try. If it will keep you safe, keep my sisters safe, I'll try." 

Stiles let out a long breath, his face still tight with anger. Derek's heart sank. He didn't want to sneak around to meet Allison, not if he and Stiles were...were...well, whatever they were, but he wasn't going to sit by and watch the whole world fall apart. He couldn't do that, not while he had a way to stop it. 

"I'm coming with you," Stiles said. 

Derek blinked, certain he'd misheard. "What?" 

"If you're meeting with Allison Argent, I'm coming with you." A muscle in Stiles's jaw twitched. "I'm not leaving you alone with her. Last time you got _shot_." 

A knot in Derek's chest loosened. "Last time you were captured." 

"I'll be more alert this time," Stiles snapped. "Gods know you can't walk five feet in this forest without _something_ happening to you, so one of us should be paying attention."

"I would appreciate it." Derek ducked his head to hide his smile, for fear of what Stiles might see in it. "I won't need to worry if you're watching out for me." 

Stiles sniffed. "Of course you won't. It's _me_."

Derek laughed out loud, and Stiles tackled him with a growl.


	12. Chapter 12

Derek left a response for Allison on the back of her note and set it at the edge of the pond, near the same place she'd left the rabbits. He had no idea how she'd gotten them there, but if she'd made it safely that far into the forest, then surely she could make her way back.

He was more than a little surprised when he and Stiles returned to the pond the next day and found another response. 

_My mother is watching me closely. It will be a few days before I can get away. Can you meet me in the clearing where we first met at midday three days from now?_  
_\--AA_

"I don't like that idea," Stiles grumbled after Derek read the note. "That's where they found you last time. We should meet her somewhere else. Somewhere safer." 

That was a good point. "Is there anywhere you can think of?" Derek asked. "Perhaps we could meet at that clearing and then go elsewhere?" He looked around the clearing and the pond, and hesitated. This was Stiles's place, and he didn't feel comfortable suggesting they bring Allison here, but if she already knew about it... "Would you consider bringing her here?"

Stiles's whole body stiffened, and he jerked away from Derek. "No. No, I don't want—"

"It's all right." Derek reached out to soothe him. "We don't have to. This is your place. You don't—if you don't want her here, we won't bring her." 

Stiles looked to Derek, eyes vulnerable and angry at the same time. "No, I don't. I know you want to do this but I still think it's the most idiotic thing I've ever heard, and I don't want her anywhere near this place if we can help it. Besides, the trees say she hasn't been here." 

"The...wait, what, she hasn't come here?" Derek rubbed his forehead. "Then how are her notes getting here? How did my note get _back_ to her?" 

Stiles cocked his head and his brow furrowed in concentration, like he was listening to something Derek couldn't hear. 

Abruptly, he flung his spear to the ground. "Are you _kidding me?_ "

"What?" Derek asked. "What is it?" 

"The great forest spirit." Stiles glared across the still waters of the forest pool. "The trees say the great forest spirit brought her first gift here, and took your previous note back to her." 

"Oh." Derek was not entirely sure how he ought to react to this information. "Is that...good?" 

Stiles sighed heavily. "It means she hasn't been here, at least. There's another stream a few minutes north of the clearing where you met her previously, and there's a cave nearby. It's a better area. More defensible. You ought to meet her there." 

All right. That would work well enough. Derek scribbled the information in his response. "We should leave some kind of trail, so she knows she's going in the right direction." 

Stiles rolled his eyes, but nodded. "Fine."

Derek caught his hand and kissed his knuckles. "I appreciate you not leaving her to the mercy of the forest."

Stiles pulled his hand away, but his cheeks flushed pink and his lips twitched, as though he were fighting back a smile. "She's a huntress. She'd find her way eventually."

***

The next three days passed interminably slowly. Allison's only response had been to agree to meet them at the cave Stiles had suggested, and then there had been no more notes. Or at least, no more notes the great forest spirit saw fit to bring them. Derek had considered going back to the clearing to see if there were any notes there, but Stiles sounded so agitated at the thought that he put it out of his mind. 

He did, however, ask if the trees had anything to say about the boars. Stiles obliged him with updates the first few times he asked, but by midday on the second day, he swatted Derek upside the head and reminded him that trees were not the best source of news. "The full force of the boar tribe has gathered in the south of the forest and they are moving north, but they move north slowly," Stiles said. "And that's all the trees are saying and all they _have_ said, now quit asking." 

Derek wanted to argue—he had no ability to understand what the trees were saying, even after Satomi's Bite—but he kept his mouth shut. The boars were still far to the south, which was the most important thing to remember. Perhaps he and Stiles could work something out with Allison before they arrived.

Though no more messages waited, they still went to the pond every day, ostensibly for Derek to practice his shift, but more often than not it quickly degenerated into kissing and touching and scenting. Derek did his best to take things slowly, but it was difficult when Stiles was all too eager to _start_ the kissing and the scenting. 

It was easy to just let it happen, to let himself fall into the kisses and into the touch, to let Stiles rub against him until he cried out and came.

The difficult part came when Derek tried to talk about it, tried to understand what this meant to Stiles, if it meant the same thing to them both. It still felt like there was a wall between them at times, and Derek worried that he was already in far, far too deep.

***

On the day they were to meet Allison, Derek had scarcely made it three minutes south from the den when Boyd trotted up beside him. 

He flinched slightly and tried to calm himself down, but he had a feeling Boyd had already smelled his anxiety. "What are you doing?" Derek asked. 

"I could ask you the same question," Boyd said. 

"I'm taking a walk in the woods," Derek said. "As usual." 

"What a coincidence," Boyd said. "So am I."

Derek wasn't sure if he could make a face at a wolf and have it mean the same thing as when he made a face at his sisters, but he was tempted to try. 

Just then, Erica bounded through the trees, Stiles on her back. "I hear you're meeting with the Argent girl!" 

Derek glared at Stiles, who did his best to look innocent. "There were three guards last time." Stiles gestured to himself, Erica, and Boyd. "We have three guards this time. Just making sure I even the odds." 

Derek sighed. There _was_ strength in numbers, but he didn't want to frighten Allison away. 

Oh well. At least she'd get the chance to meet his pack. 

It wasn't until they were another five minutes into the forest that Derek realized that was the first time he'd thought of them as _his_ pack.

***

Derek set up at the cave, as Stiles had requested, and Boyd and Erica went to meet Allison to make sure she made it here with as little trouble as possible. Meanwhile, Stiles stalked the perimeter of the clearing like a panther, muttering to himself about vulnerabilities and idiot werewolves.

Derek grabbed him when he got close and kissed him, just enough to feel Stiles relax and mold to him, and then Stiles pushed away. "We don't have time for mating right now." 

"I know that." Derek leaned forward and brushed a chaste kiss on his cheek. "But you're making me dizzy with the circles you're pacing. And I like kissing you." 

Stiles made a face, but he walked to a stone near the cave entrance and grabbed his spear from where it leaned against the rock. "It's close to midday. They should be back by now." 

"Have a little faith in Boyd and Erica to take care of themselves," Derek said, but he still turned his ears toward the forest and listened. 

It wasn't long before he heard the sound of footsteps heading their way, shuffling through the underbrush. The gait was wrong to be Boyd and Erica, but there were too many to be just Allison. 

Either she'd brought someone with her, or...

Derek motioned to Stiles, and they both climbed on top of the cave and lay flat on the rock. It gave them a perfect view of the clearing, while hiding them from anyone who would be down there, looking around. 

A few moments later, Allison entered the clearing, flanked on one side by a shorter girl just as pale as she was with a long red braid hanging over her shoulder, and on the other side by a tan young man with dark, floppy hair and a guardsman's uniform that looked just a hair too large. 

The young man searched the clearing. "Are we early? I didn't think we'd be early." 

The redhead sniffed, and eyed the ground with some level of distaste. "I suppose it would be too much to hope for chairs."

"We're not early," Allison said. "And I'll be sure to bring seating of some sort next time, Lydia." 

Stiles tensed, his fingers digging into the rock. "She didn't come alone. She—"

Derek rested his hand over Stiles's and squeezed. "I didn't either," he whispered. "She brought only one guard. I brought three."

Stiles wiggled his fingers, but didn't argue the point. Derek counted that as a win. 

He stood up and brushed leaves and moss off his clothes. Stiles quickly scrambled to his feet beside him, holding his spear out in front of them. 

On the ground, the young man jumped in front of Lydia and Allison, holding his own spear out like it would do any good against them. 

Derek ignored him and focused on Allison. "Good to see you made it."

She put a hand on her hip and raised her eyebrows at him. "What are you doing up there?"

"Heard too many footsteps," he said easily. "Considering what happened last time, you'll forgive my caution." 

Allison's eyes narrowed. "Those guards weren't with me. I didn't know my mother had sent them." 

"And you expect us just to take your word for it?" Stiles shot back. "Who did you bring this time?" 

The young guard with Allison stepped forward, his spear still held high. "How dare you speak to Lady Allison in such a way? Show some respect!" 

"Scott," Allison said gently. 

Derek rested his hand on Stiles's shoulder, hoping to calm him down. The name _Scott_ sounded vaguely familiar. "Is he one of those who helped us get Stiles out?"

Allison nodded. "My mother refused to let me enter the forest without a personal guard, so I brought Scott. And Lydia has been my closest friend for years, and is my advisor on many things." 

Derek crossed his arms and studied Lydia, who didn't look too impressed with any of them. "So you brought her to help you discuss the terms of our peace?" 

Allison gestured to Stiles. "I'm not the only one who brought help." 

Stiles bristled. "I'm not here to discuss peace. I'm here to make sure you don't hurt him." 

Derek sighed, and climbed down off the top of the cave, ignoring Stiles's squawk of outrage. Someone had to make the first overture here; it might as well be him. 

He held out his hand to Scott. "Thank you for helping us get Stiles out of Irontown." 

Scott eyed him dubiously for only half a second before he set his spear aside and shook Derek's hand, an easy, crooked grin spreading across his face. "I imagine you'd have done the same if Allison had been captured." 

_I certainly hope so,_ Derek thought, but he nodded just the same. "Well, you all have met Stiles, and Erica and Boyd should be around here somewhere." 

Lydia frowned. "I didn't know of any other humans living with the wolf tribe." 

"That's because we're not," Erica's voice said from Derek's right. "Human, that is."

Derek supposed he should have felt a _little_ bad for the way Lydia and Scott jumped when Erica and Boyd walked into the clearing, but it was oddly gratifying to know the sight of two white wolves made them nervous. 

Though he didn't want them to be _that_ nervous. "It's all right," Derek said. "They wouldn't hurt you." 

Erica snapped at the air. "Oh, yes, we would." 

"Only with reason," Boyd added. 

Derek sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "They _won't_ hurt you. But if we're going to be building a lasting truce between our people, you should know my pack." 

Allison smiled at him, and then bowed to Boyd and Erica. "It's good to see you again, Erica. I'm glad you're no worse for wear after your trip through Irontown." 

"Oh, it was _fun_." Erica grinned. "If you ever need me to do it again, just let me know." 

Boyd nipped at her neck. " _No_." 

Erica growled and pounced on him, and they rolled away, play-wrestling. 

Lydia arched an eyebrow. "Are they always like that?" 

Derek nodded. "Oh yes." 

Allison coughed and covered her mouth with her hand, but Derek caught the edge of her smile. "Well, I feel much safer, knowing they're looking out for us." 

"As well you should," Derek said, with as much gravity in voice as he could summon. He gestured to the clearing, wishing now that he'd thought to bring seating. Oh well. They could make do. "Shall we get started?"

***

Several hours later, Derek was prepared to claw up the nearest tree. The forest was dimming with the setting sun and it felt like they hadn't made any progress beyond establishing that there were far more problems between Irontown and the forest than Derek had thought at the beginning of all this. 

Lydia had whipped out a quill and a piece of paper to take notes as Derek and Allison talked, occasionally piping up with her own input. Boyd and Erica had kept to the perimeter of the clearing, watching out for Irontown guards, but they too had spoken up when Derek was unsure of something. Stiles and Scott hadn't had anything to add to the discussions, so they'd spent the afternoon by the cave, each with a spear slung over his shoulder and warily watching the other. 

Or rather, Stiles was warily watching. Whenever Derek looked up, Scott seemed to be caught between warily watching and staring besottedly at Allison. 

"Well, this has been a productive meeting," Lydia said, packing up her paper, "but it is getting late and we need to get back to town before nightfall." 

Allison cursed under her breath and gave Derek an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. As I said, my mother has become more restrictive recently. If I push her rules too far..."

Derek cut her off with a curt nod. "I understand. I only wish we'd made more progress."

Allison shrugged and smiled. "We opened the conversation, and that's more than has happened in the past ten years. I think that's progress enough for one day, don't you?" 

Well, when she put it that way, it felt less like Derek had been sitting here for five hours and glaring. 

Allison held out her hand. "We can come again tomorrow. Same time, same place?" 

Derek took her hand and shook it. "We'll see you then." 

Lydia, Scott, and Allison left shortly after that, with Boyd and Erica following behind to ensure they safely navigated the rapidly dimming forest. 

Stiles stayed crouched beside the cave, fingers wrapped tightly around the handle of his spear, glare fixed on the trees where the rest of the party had disappeared. 

Derek cautiously settled on the ground beside him. He wanted to touch, wanted to pull Stiles into him and kiss him until the anger melted from his face, but now didn't seem like the best time. 

"This is going to take forever," Stiles grumbled. 

Well, Derek really couldn't argue with that. It felt outstandingly naïve, now, that he'd thought they could solve all their problems in an afternoon. "What did you think of them?" 

"They're human," Stiles said with a shrug, as though that explained everything. 

Then again, for him, perhaps it did. "They did help us save your life," Derek said. 

Stiles finally tore his glare from the forest and fixed it on Derek. "You aren't ever going to let that go, are you?" 

An echo of the fear he'd felt thrummed through him, and Derek shook his head. "No. You're very important to me, so I won't forget anyone who helped save you." 

Stiles whipped his head back to the forest, but Derek didn't miss the way his cheeks turned pinker. "What did _you_ think of them? Seems that might be a more important answer." 

Derek sighed and scrubbed a hand through his hair. "I think we have a place to start. Hopefully we'll be able to do more in our future meetings."

"Hmph." Stiles knocked his elbow against Derek's. "Optimist. What do you _really_ think?" 

He glared, but Stiles had a point, even now reading Derek far too easily. "I don't think we have enough time to make a truce before the boars get here. And even if we do, getting both Satomi and Lady Victoria to agree to it..."

Stiles snorted rudely. 

Well, Derek couldn't argue with that assessment. 

"So what will we do?" Stiles asked. "Kill Lady Victoria and have Allison take over Irontown?" 

Derek sighed. "When the boars get here, I'll present myself to them as the one who killed Kali. Maybe they'll be content to take their vengeance—"

"On _you?_ " Stiles scrambled to his feet and rounded on him. "Derek, they'll kill you in a heartbeat!" 

"Better me alone than the forest and every village around it."

" _No_." Stiles slammed the butt of his spear into the ground. "No, I'm not going to watch you sacrifice yourself in some idiotic, futile effort to...to..."

"To save everyone else?" Derek said dryly. 

Stiles smacked his thigh with the spear. "Don't be an ass."

Derek rubbed his leg ruefully and stood. "I'm not being an ass. I'm being realistic. We need to have another plan for the boars, because I doubt they'll listen to the truce, at least at first."

"Then we'll come up with another one." Stiles poked his chest with a finger. "I'll come up with a _dozen_. But not a single one of them will involve you _dying_ , do you understand?" 

His heart warmed at the words, and Derek grabbed his hand and brought it to his mouth to kiss Stiles's knuckles. "I understand." 

On their way home, they stopped against a tree to kiss hungrily in the fading light of the forest, Derek saying with his hands and mouth what he couldn't quite say with his words just yet. No one was around to see, besides Stiles and the trees and their spirits.

And he felt fairly sure the kodamas would be discreet.


	13. Chapter 13

The next time they met was much like the first, with Boyd and Erica patrolling and occasionally play fighting, Scott and Stiles keeping guard with wary glances at each other, and Derek, Lydia, and Allison sitting on a circle of stones and reviewing the notes Lydia had made the day before. They didn't get much further on building a truce, but halfway through the afternoon Derek overhead Scott and Stiles arguing quietly over the best fighting style for spears. By the time the sun was setting and the Irontown contingent had to leave, Derek was pretty sure he'd heard wagers being placed on who would win in a fight. 

The third day, Derek brought an entire deer to the clearing to share, and Boyd and Erica ate their half raw while Derek cooked the rest for the humans. Scott and Stiles had their spear fight while the rest of them watched and cheered and Lydia used the back part of her notes to keep track of the wagers, which got increasingly creative (three rabbits, four quail, and a bushel of berries) because Derek, Boyd, and Erica didn't have any kind of money. 

Derek cheered when Stiles won by the barest margin twice in a row, and Scott laughed good-naturedly at his loss while Lydia and Allison groaned. 

"You'll have to teach me your moves," Scott said once he was on his feet again. 

Stiles blinked in surprise. "I...all right. Next time." 

Derek caught Allison before she left. "Instead of the berries, do you think, um..." 

Allison laughed and crossed her arms over her chest. "Some other boon you'd ask of me?" 

"Can you bring a jar of oil?" Derek asked as quickly as he could, his entire face and neck aflame. 

"Oil?" Allison repeated, her brow creased in confusion. "What need do you have of oil?" 

Derek had no way of explaining, and his face grew even hotter as he tried to think of a way to do so. 

Lydia cleared her throat and pulled Allison down to whisper in her ear. It wasn't quite soft enough that Derek couldn't hear as Lydia explained—with frankly worrying accuracy—what he intended to do with the oil. 

"Oh!" Allison's hands flew to her mouth and her face flushed bright red. "Oh. I understand. I, um, I will see if we can get that to you." 

Derek stared at the ground and just nodded, praying that the earth would open and swallow him whole. 

It wasn't until he, Stiles, Boyd, and Erica were on their way back to the den, Erica cackling over their victory in the spear-fight and Stiles grinning stupidly about it, that Derek realized they hadn't made any progress on the actual truce. 

Strangely, it still felt like they had.

***

"No, no, no." Lydia shook her head staunchly. "Absolutely not." 

Derek's frustration grew, and he tamped it down. "And why not? It's not like Irontown _needs_ the bullets." 

"We need some way to defend ourselves," Lydia shot back. "We have few resources outside of iron and wood, and the iron mines are rich enough that they make us a pretty target for the other lords in the area." 

"Lydia," Allison said sternly, and then turned back to Derek. "I understand why you don't want the bullets manufactured, but Lydia's right. We _do_ need some way to defend ourselves from the other lords of the area."

Derek growled in the back of his throat, and cut it off because it wasn't wise to be growling at the negotiating table. It was the sixth day they'd met, and while things had been going well overall, there were more than a few sticking points in their agreement. 

"Maybe if we just don't use the bullets on the gods of the forest?" Allison suggested. 

That was the most naïve thing he'd ever heard in his life. Derek felt his eyebrows climb nearly to his hairline.

Allison sighed. "Fine, you're right, that's not a feasible solution."

"You think?" Derek said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. 

Lydia bristled. "You would do well to watch your tongue while you're speaking to Lady Allison." 

Allison rubbed the bridge of her nose. " _Lydia._ "

Derek growled again, but made himself pull back his teeth. "My apologies. It's been a stressful day."

From the looks on Lydia's and Allison's faces, they agreed. 

Derek leaned back on his stone and looked up at the trees, swaying gently in the warm midafternoon breeze, as if they hadn't a care in the world. At the moment, he certainly wouldn't mind being a tree. 

Behind him, Boyd and Erica were napping with Kira, who had started attending their little meetings on day four (probably so she could meet more humans, Derek thought). Scott and Stiles were nowhere to be seen, but Derek could hear Scott tromping through the forest, just out of sight, and guessed Stiles was continuing his quest to help Scott become a better, more silent tracker. A futile quest, Derek thought, but the two of them had bonded over it. 

He took a deep breath, held in the scent of grass and trees and sunlight, and exhaled slowly. "Maybe the wolf tribe can help with the protection of your town, should you need it." 

"Really?" Now Allison looked at him as though it were the most naïve thing she'd ever heard. "Do you truly think Satomi will come to our aid, after everything?" 

"If our truce has been made in good faith and the people of Irontown are keeping to it, I see no reason why not," Derek said stubbornly.

"Unless, of course, you _don't_ think the people of Irontown can keep to whatever agreement we come to," Stiles's voice said.

Derek spun around; Stiles was draped across the branch of a tree near the edge of the clearing, glaring at the three of them with no small amount of venom in his gaze. He gripped the edge of the branch he lay on and swung down, landing on the ground and then rolling to his feet. "Then again, I feel reasonably secure saying Mother won't agree to any truce that doesn't promise at least _some_ retribution for what the people of Irontown have done to us and this forest." 

"What we've done to you?" Lydia was on her feet and returning Stiles's glare inch for inch. "Do you have any idea what your wolves have done to _us?_ How many widows and widowers there are because you've attacked caravans or miners or—"

"Because you're destroying this forest!" Stiles flung his arms out, as if to encompass all of it. "It's our duty to protect it." 

"Just as we have a duty to protect our town and our people," Allison said. "You aren't the only ones who have lost someone during this." 

Stiles's eyes went sharp and his whole body stiffened, like he might break. "You want to talk about loss, my _lady_?" he sneered.

Derek snarled, louder than he ever had before, and the three other humans jumped at the noise. "This arguing isn't getting us anywhere," he said. "But we have come to a sticking point. I believe that Satomi will honor this agreement, if is made in good faith." He turned to Allison. "Can you honestly say the same about Lady Victoria?" 

Allison pressed her lips together and looked down at her linked fingers. "I don't know," she said softly. "A few years ago, I would have said yes, but ever since my father and aunt—" She bit off the word and took two shaky breaths. "Since they've been gone, she's become more and more consumed with the desire for vengeance. At this point, I'm not sure even I could get through to her. It would take time." 

"Time we don't have," Stiles snapped. 

Derek wanted to swat him. "And what about you?" he asked, bringing Stiles's amber gaze to him. "Can _you_ honor the agreement we make here?" 

_If it means never getting your own vengeance_ , he thought, but from the way Stiles's eyes widened, he heard the unsaid addition to the question. He looked away from Derek, his mouth twisting down. 

Answer enough, then. Derek sighed and pressed a knuckle to his temple. 

"Well, this was certainly illuminating." Lydia sat back on her rock and rearranged her skirt. "We may spend all day arguing over the points on this agreement, and yet some of the most important people involved won't even abide by it." 

"Waste of time," Stiles muttered. 

Allison's head snapped up, her dark eyes flashing. "It is _not_. Finding a common ground is never a waste of time." 

Stiles opened his mouth like he was about to argue again, when Scott came crashing back into the clearing. " _There_ you are, I thought you said—" He cut himself off and looked around their little group. "What happened?" 

Derek shook his head. "Nothing, Scott. It's just been a long afternoon." 

"Perhaps we should stop for the day, and start fresh tomorrow," Allison suggested. 

Stiles scoffed and crossed his arms. "Do you really think this will be fixed just by starting another day? Is your mother going to magically have a change of heart between now and tomorrow? Is—"

Derek pulled Stiles over to him and covered his mouth with one hand. "Not helping," he whispered. 

Stiles glowered at him mutinously, but thankfully quit talking. 

Awkward silence stretched through the clearing, broken only by the sounds of the forest and the syncopated rhythm of their heartbeats. It was fine, Derek told himself, they would be fine; they'd known this wasn't going to be easy when they started. They would just have to—

Those weren't heartbeats. 

Derek froze, his own heart thudding faster, but the steady bass beats he heard weren't coming from his heart or anyone else's. 

"Boyd. Erica," he said sharply. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Scott asked.

Stiles shushed him. 

Boyd, Erica, and Kira all raised their heads, turning almost as one toward the southwest. 

Toward Irontown. 

"It sounds like drums," Boyd said after a moment. 

Allison jumped to her feet. "What pattern? What pattern are they playing?" 

Derek dropped his hand from Stiles so he could tap out the rhythm on his arm. The drumbeats seemed to be getting louder and faster with each passing moment. 

Allison's eyes widened in horror. "Battle drums."

Scott whirled toward the town, his spear out as though that could do anything this far away. "Who's attacking? Is it Lord Garrett? Or—" 

Stiles grabbed Derek's arm, fingernails digging into his skin. "It's the boars. The trees say—"

Something exploded to the southwest, loud enough that even the humans could hear it. 

Allison clapped her hands over her mouth. "Oh gods. We have to get back." 

"I can carry someone," Kira spoke up.

Boyd got to his feet. "And I can carry two." 

Allison looked between them and then to Derek, cautious hope on her face. 

Derek slid his eyes to Stiles, whose lips thinned, and then he nodded once. 

Good enough for Derek. "Let's run."


	14. Chapter 14

With Lydia on Kira, Allison and Scott on Boyd, and Stiles on Erica as usual, they raced toward Irontown. Derek's heart pounded in time with his feet on the ground, tearing up leaves and grass in his wake. He saw no kodamas in the forest, as though the little tree spirits had recognized something was wrong and gone into hiding. 

They had the right idea, in that case. 

Faster than Derek would have thought, they reached the edge of the forest and the bank of the lake, and they could clearly see the battle for the first time. 

The boars had charged down the scarred, bare mountainside directly in front of the town, right toward the main gates. From this distance it looked like a writhing mass of bodies painted with mud, the squeals of the boars and the explosions from the town so loud it hurt Derek's ears. Some of the boars were in the lake, trying to rip out the log spikes on the sides of the island so they could scale that way. 

And among the chaos, Derek heard a loud, familiar howl go up from amongst the boars. From the way Boyd and Erica snapped to attention, he guessed they'd heard it too. 

"I had no idea Deucalion had so many with him," Kira said.

Derek growled. "Satomi's down there as well." 

"Oh my gods," Allison whispered. "They're going to destroy the entire town." 

"Not if we get to them first," Stiles said. 

Derek whirled to him, not quite believing his ears. Stiles jumped off Erica's back and paced the bank of the lake, as though he were trying to see clear across it. "Erica and I can find Mother and talk her out of this," he said. "Kira, you're the one who's most familiar with Deucalion. Do you think you could find him?" 

Kira nodded. "He respects my parents, so I can get him to listen to me." 

"Even through his rage?" Derek asked.

Kira smiled and twitched her tails. "We can hope, right?" 

Hope was about all they had right now. 

"My mother's most likely in the town." Allison strode up next to Stiles. "But I'm not sure I can get past the boars."

Derek considered. "Not through the front gate. But if we go across the lake, around the back like we did to get Stiles out..." 

Stiles stopped and stared at him. "What do you mean 'we'?" 

Derek gestured to himself and the others.

Stiles shook his head. "Oh, no. You're not setting foot outside this forest." 

Before Derek could protest, Boyd spoke up. "Your curse _will_ come back." 

"I'll have time before it does," Derek said. "I'm not leaving you all to face this alone. I can help protect Allison from the boars. Or I can go with Kira, tell Deucalion that I was the one who—"

Stiles cut him off with a swipe of his hand. " _No_. You are not going to _martyr_ yourself in the middle of a battle." 

Derek ground his teeth. "If it would stop the fighting—" 

"Wait," Allison said. "Your curse comes back if you leave the forest, correct?" 

Derek nodded. 

Allison set her jaw. "Then you should come with me. If Mother can see what our bullets do, what could happen to her people if the boars are turned to demons, it may help bring her around." 

_May help_ was not terribly encouraging, but given what else Derek knew of Lady Victoria, _may help_ was as good as they were going to get. "Then I'll go with you." 

"No!" Stiles shouted.

"Scott, go with Kira," Allison ordered, and rested her hand on his arm as soon as he opened his mouth. "She doesn't need to go through that mess alone, and you can protect her without angering Deucalion further."

Scott looked like he still wanted to argue, but he stepped back and bowed. "As my lady commands, as always."

He jumped on Kira's back and they rode off toward the fighting. 

"Stiles, you and Erica go," Derek said. "It's going to be hard to find—"

"No." Stiles jabbed his finger in Derek's face. "No, you idiot, I'm not riding away when I know you're going to do something that could _kill you_." 

Derek brushed his hand away and threaded their fingers together. "And you aren't?" 

"It's not the same!" 

"I'm not doing this thoughtlessly!" 

"I don't—" Stiles snapped his mouth closed, pressing his lips together as though to keep the words from spilling out. "I don't want to lose you," he finally said, so softly Derek could barely hear him over the sound of the battle.

Derek touched his chin, kissed him briefly, just enough to feel the pressure of it tingle against his lips. "I know. I don't want to lose you either. Trust me, please." 

Stiles let out a shaky breath, and then threw his arms around Derek in a tight, bone-crushing hug. "If you die, I will bring you back and kill you myself."

Derek hugged him back, burying his nose in Stiles's neck to memorize his scent. "As I will you." 

Stiles cursed and pulled away, wiping his eyes, and ran off, jumping onto Erica's back halfway down the bank of the river. 

"Are you certain about this?" Boyd asked softly. 

"Not even a little," Derek admitted. "Let's go."

***

Avoiding the boars was easier than Derek had anticipated. They were sticking close to the rest of their tribe and the front gates of the town, and so had no quarrel with two women, one man, and a wolf swimming up to the rear of the city. 

They were halfway up the slope when Derek heard a tremendous _crack_ , followed by the roar of a dozen trees crashing to the ground. 

Allison froze and turned toward the front of the city. "They've broken through the walls! We have to hurry."

Derek scrambled up the slope faster, helping Lydia when she stumbled, steadfastly ignoring the steady throb of pain starting coming from his arm, the way the battle suddenly sounded like he was hearing it from underwater. He would be fine. 

They crawled through the culvert and into a city in chaos. Even without enhanced hearing, the noise was deafening: dozens of boars squealing in pain and rage, the crack of guns, the screams of the people, the crunch of wood being smashed apart. The acrid stench of smoke filled the air, choking Derek with each breath. 

He pulled his shirt over his nose and mouth to breathe easier. "Can we find your mother in this?" he yelled to Allison. 

She, too, had her dress pulled up over her nose and mouth, her eyes red and watery from the smoke. She waved her hand toward the street. "This way!" 

For the second time, Derek followed Allison through Irontown, though this time no one paid them any mind. People ran back and forth, some carrying water, others carrying weapons. The boars hadn't gotten this far into the city yet, so they only had to fight their way through people, not through boars as well. Although...

"There aren't as many people as I would have thought," Derek said. 

Next to him, Lydia waved at the wall behind him. "That's because everyone who can will be fighting. Only the very old and the very young are heading to the other island." 

"Allison!" someone called over the noise of the battle. 

Allison skidded to a stop. "Melissa?" 

Derek followed her gaze to a woman with dark, curly hair bound up out of her face, standing at the entrance to a building that looked to be a healer's hut. She carried no weapon that he could see. 

Allison darted over to her and hugged her quickly. "Have you seen Mother?" 

Melissa shook her head. "The last I saw, she was heading to the main gates. She means to take out the wolf god." 

Boyd growled. "The hell she will." 

Derek rested his hand on Boyd's head, for all the good it did. The curse on his arm throbbed. "We'll have to hurry." 

Melissa shoved a bow and a quiver into Allison's hands. "Take this. We'll try to move the rest of the infirmary to the other island before the boars get any closer." 

Allison cradled the bow to her chest and nodded to Lydia. "Help Melissa. I'll go with Boyd and Derek to find Mother." 

Lydia pressed her lips together and nodded, but she didn't look happy. "All right. Be careful." 

Allison slung the quiver over her shoulder. "Always." 

Derek started running for the main gate. Boyd overtook him quickly, racing past, and it didn't take long for Allison to catch up. "She may be near the main gate, or she may be where the wall was breached," she shouted. 

Derek shook his head. "She'll be wherever Satomi is." 

_Find her kill her stop her kill her..._ Derek clenched his jaw against the tide of anger and vengeance surging in him, exacerbated by the battle around them. The pain grew worse with each step, each minute he spent away from the forest, but he could hold it together long enough to stop this. 

He hoped. 

As they drew closer to the main gates of the city, the smell of blood and death hit Derek's nose, so strong he thought he would choke on it. The ground shook with an explosion, nearly throwing Derek to the ground, and sent up a plume of dirt off to his right. Boars and humans alike screamed. 

Despair tangled with urgency in his chest. Finding anyone in this chaos would be nearly impossible. Derek wished he could still scent, could pick out the smell of pack from under all the others, but the incessant agony in his arm reminded him just how human he was. 

Two bloody boars ran into their path, eyes red and wild with rage. Derek skidded to a stop, threw his arm out to keep Allison from running headlong into them. 

He had no claws. He had no fangs. He had no weapon of any kind, and the boars looked well beyond any reason. 

Boyd sprang out in front of them, hackles raised and teeth bared. "Go," he snarled. 

Derek hesitated. "Boyd—"

"I can take them. Go!" 

Derek opened his mouth to argue further, when Allison shot an arrow, striking one of the boars in the eye. It shrieked, loud enough Derek swore his teeth hurt.

She grabbed Derek's hand. "There, the odds are evened. Let's go!" 

She led him off the main road and up a narrow stairwell to the top of the wall. "We can see better from here," Allison explained. "My mother will have a black cape and hood, though I'm not sure if it will still be—"

Derek spotted a flash of white in the crowd of boars and humans clashing at the gate. "I see Satomi."

"Where?" 

Derek pointed, straining his eyes to see more in the battle. "Down there. She looks hurt." He spun toward the stairwell. "I'm going." 

"Wait!" Allison yelled.

He ignored her and ran. 

Getting through the battle was far from easy, not when Derek had to duck and weave his way through. Another explosion went off, closer now than it had been before, and he dove to the ground, covering his head and curling into a ball to protect himself. Dirt and unidentifiable debris rained on him, and Derek very deliberately thought only of Satomi and Stiles and Erica, trapped out in this mess. 

He scrambled to his feet as soon as he could and took off again, looping up the side of the mountain to avoid where the fighting was thickest. He had to get to Satomi before Lady Victoria did. 

Once again, he spotted her white fur amidst the dark brown of the boars, and Derek ran for it. The curse pounded along with his heartbeat, a steady throbbing, and Derek gritted his teeth against it. 

He slid to the ground next to Satomi. Erica and Stiles were already there, Stiles crouched next to her with his hands on her side, and Erica standing guard, like she was ready to jump at anyone, boar or human, who got too close. Satomi's breathing was labored, a bit of blood dripping out of the corner of her mouth, and Stiles sucked at a fist-sized wound on her side, spitting the blood out onto the ground beside him. 

Derek rested his hand on Satomi's flank, felt the rhythm of her breathing and her heartbeat under his palm. He didn't have to ask what had happened; it was plain on Stiles's tight, furious face. 

"The humans on top of the gate were better shots than I expected," Satomi said, whether because she had just noticed Derek there or felt the need to explain in general, he couldn't say. 

He was glad he was sitting down already, because if he'd still been standing, his knees would have turned to water. He wanted to say _we can get it out_ , or _it will be all right_ , but Derek didn't even believe the words inside his head, and the last thing he wanted to do was spit platitudes at the wolf god who had saved him. 

"Can you move?" he asked instead. "Can you get back to the forest?" 

Satomi chuckled, the sound rasping worryingly. "And what good do you think that will do, son of Talia?" 

"Something good!" Stiles shouted, wiping away the blood flecked around his mouth. "The borders of the forest kept the curse at bay for Derek; why wouldn't it do the same for you?" 

"The magic is strong," Derek agreed. "It will help until we can think of something else."

Satomi met Derek's eyes over Stiles's head, and once again, he felt the absolutely ancient, endless power there. "You know well the fate of those struck with these bullets. What is the 'else' that you hope to think of?" 

Derek wanted to growl, wanted to rage and fight and argue about all of it, but none of that would help and all of it would only make his own curse worse. Besides, he feared at his core that she was right. 

Stiles snapped his head up. "Don't say things like that! You're going to be fine, Mother. _Fine_."

The force of the last word was such that Derek half-believed Stiles could make it happen solely from his own belief. 

Stiles looked to him, and the anger in his face faded to something else, something different and softer. "You should get back to the forest." 

Derek shook his head. "I'm not leaving you in the middle of this." 

Now Stiles's eyes went angry again. "I can see it hurting you. You shouldn't—"

"I'll be fine," Derek cut him off. 

Stiles opened his mouth to argue _more_ —of course he did; it was Stiles, when didn't he want to argue?—but Derek looked over his head and his blood ran cold. 

A black-cloaked woman with short red hair stood just yards away from them, raising a rifle to her shoulder and taking careful aim. 

"Get _down!_ " Derek shouted, pushing Stiles down and jumping over him in the same motion. If he could get to Lady Victoria first, get the gun away from her or shove it out of the way—

She fired.

Derek had a split second to think of how he'd overestimated his speed, or underestimated hers, and then a bullet slammed into his chest. 

He stopped, staggered with the force of it, and fell backwards onto the ground. 

" _Derek!_ "

He blinked, and then Stiles appeared his field of vision, ripping off his cloak and pressing it to Derek's chest. It didn't hurt as much as it should. He had a feeling that ought to worry him. It didn't, though, not nearly as much as the sight of Stiles's pale face, tears streaking through the blood and dirt and paint on his cheeks. 

Derek reached up, thinking to wipe the tears away, but he couldn't make his arm move properly. 

Stiles caught his wrist, holding it so tightly Derek could feel the pressure of it, but it didn't hurt. That was all right. Stiles would be sad if he knew he hurt Derek. 

"Don't move, don't—" Stiles coughed. "Don't move, you absolute _ass_ , I can't believe you got yourself shot, you said you wouldn't leave without me, Derek, _you can't leave!_ "

Black spots danced at the edges of his vision, and breathing was getting more difficult by the second. "Don't wanna." Derek wasn't sure how he managed to say it, wasn't even sure if Stiles could hear him over the sound of the battle. "Don't wanna leave you." 

"You're not going to!" The words ended on a screech and Stiles went back to pushing on his chest, trying to stem the bleeding that was most definitely coming out both his chest and back. "You're not, you _can't_ , I love you Derek, I love you and I need you and—"

Derek moved his arm again, this time managed to put his hand where it belonged, on Stiles's face, wiping away the tears and blood, tracing the moles that dotted his jaw. "Me too," he whispered, swallowing away the coppery blood filling his mouth. "Me too." 

Stiles grabbed his hand, holding it flat to his cheek, his eyes saying a thousand things Derek couldn't read right now, not with his vision fading steadily. 

From nowhere, Satomi's voice rang in his ears. "Bring him here, Stiles." 

Stiles's face snapped away from Derek's. "What? What do you mean? What do you mean to do?" 

"Would you rather lose two people you care about tonight, or just one?" Satomi said with her unending patience. "Bring him here." 

The pressure on Derek's hand increased, and myriad emotions crossed over Stiles's face, blurring together as Derek's vision faded out and came back. Then, he pulled Derek up, wiggling one arm behind his back. "Come on, come on, if you love me, you can walk just a little, walk a little farther." 

He blinked, and the next time he opened his eyes, he was sitting against Satomi, her great side rising and falling with each breath, pushing him with it like the tide. Though his vision swam, he could still see Stiles crouching in front of him, and beyond him, Lady Victoria, also crouching on the ground and clutching one of her arms. 

That was odd. Why was she crouching? 

Stiles slapped his cheeks. "Derek. Derek, stay with me. Please." 

Derek nodded, but it was getting harder to keep his eyes open, to keep himself focused on Stiles. "I'm sorry," he whispered, because he hadn't meant to do this, hadn't meant to become another person Stiles lost to Lady Victoria. 

"No!" Stiles lunged forward and wrapped his arms around Derek. "Don't say that, don't say you're sorry, you'll be fine, you'll be...fine." 

"Do you promise to take care of them, son of Talia?"

Satomi's voice seemed to come from all around him. Derek tried to speak, but he couldn't, so he just nodded. _Yes, I can take care of them._

"Good. Then give me your arm." 

With the last of his strength, Derek held out his arm, and felt Satomi's teeth sink in deep.


	15. Chapter 15

The world was filled with soft, white light, muting the colors of the forest into something pale, like Derek was looking at everything through a cloud. 

He pressed his hand to his chest, but it was solid, no sign of a bullet having passed through him just moments before. The lack of pain ought to have been his first clue, but the missing hole in his chest made it real. 

Two figures shimmered into existence before him, both dark-haired women, one of whom Derek knew very well. 

"Mother?" 

She knelt in front of him, looking the same as she had the last time he'd seen her, with her dark hair bound up atop her head and delicate silver earrings hanging from her ears. But no, she didn't look quite the same; she was brighter, more vibrant, even in this world. 

Mother smiled and cupped his cheek. "I've missed you, my son." 

Derek couldn't speak over the lump in his throat, and he placed his hand over hers and squeezed. "Is this—am I—"

He was afraid of her answer, because as much as he wanted to be with her again, the idea of leaving Stiles hurt so much Derek couldn't breathe. 

Tears glimmered in her eyes, and she shook her head. "Not yet. Thank the gods, because _I'm_ not ready for you to be here yet." 

Derek choked on a laugh. "I thought you missed me." 

"I do. I miss you and your sisters every day, but you have so much more life to live and so much more to see." The shaky smile took on a mischievous tilt. "Besides, I have it on good authority there's someone else you'd much rather be with." 

His thoughts turned immediately to Stiles, and Derek bit his lip, hoping he wasn't blushing. Not that it mattered, his mother had always had a way of seeing through him. 

"I told you," the other woman said, her lips quirked in a strangely familiar grin. "They're good together. Or they will be." 

Mother sighed. "Yes, you did. I _have_ already confessed that at least twice, haven't I?"

The woman's eyes lit up with glee. "Never hurts to hear it again." 

Derek frowned between the two of them. "Who are you?" he asked the second woman. 

She waved the question away. "Unimportant, at the moment. You'll find out soon enough. You have more important things to get back to." 

Mother kissed his forehead, just as she had when Derek was a child. "I'm so proud of you, Derek. I love you."

His heart squeezed at that, the grief and pain he always held close with her. "I love you too."

She gave him one last, too-brief hug, and stood up. "It's time to wake back up." 

Before Derek could say anything else, could reach out to touch her one last time, the white world faded to black around him.

***

Derek opened his eyes and sucked in a deep breath, the first true breath it felt like he'd had in ages. No longer was the battle muted; he smelled everything, _heard_ everything as though he were still in the forest. And for the first time since he'd stepped out of the forest, he felt no pain. 

He shoved up his sleeve to look, but he knew what he'd see. His arm was clean. The curse was gone completely. 

"Derek?" Stiles knelt in front of him, trembling hands pressed to Derek's chest. He sounded both scared and hopeful. "Derek, are you—"

Derek reached up to cup Stiles's face and pulled him into a harsh kiss, one that smelled of blood and violence and hope and life and _Stiles_ all rolled into one. Everything was brighter and sharper, and Derek knew beyond a shadow of a doubt where Boyd and Erica were without even looking, could feel the bonds of the pack twining between them. And Stiles...Stiles was something _more_ , and he intended to figure out how much more just as soon as they were out of this. 

He stood, slightly unsteady on legs that had been ready to give out on him just moments before, and could finally take in everything else. Lady Victoria was kneeling where she'd shot him, an arrow through her shoulder. Allison stood beside her, a grim set to her mouth and her bow clenched in one fist. Erica curled up on the ground beside him and Stiles, whimpering mournfully.

And behind him, Satomi lay lifeless and unmoving. 

Derek buried his hand in her thick white fur and swallowed the sudden lump in his throat. "Thank you." 

_Thank me by keeping your promise, son of Talia._

Derek didn't know if the voice in his head was Satomi's, the forest, or merely his own imagination. He doubted it mattered. 

An explosion rocked the town, sending a plume of fire and smoke spewing into the air. Derek grabbed for Stiles, pulling him close, trying to ascertain where the explosion had taken place. It had been too large to be one of Irontown's weapons. 

Allison clapped her free hand over her mouth. "The forge! The boars have reached the forge!" 

Lady Victoria got to her feet. "If the forge is gone, the whole town will be right behind it. We have to get our people out of there." 

Stiles growled and seized his knife, but Derek stayed his hand. "Not the time," he murmured. 

Stiles swore, but at least he let go of the knife. "Then what do we do?" 

Derek looked to the gates of the town, thought of all the people on the other side. "We have to get the boars out of there, and get the people to safety."

"And just how do you propose we do that?" Stiles asked. "We'll have to separate them somehow, and the boars won't follow anyone but Deucalion. And he's already succumbing to the curse. Reasoning with him will be impossible." 

Derek thought fast. "Water. Water slows the curse. If we could get them to the lake—"

But Stiles was shaking his head. "No, it's too close to the town, and the water in the lake will only slow it, not stop it completely. We'd need..." He trailed off. 

Derek had already finished the thought in his head, and he threaded his fingers through Stiles's. "The pond," he said softly. "Can we take them there?" 

Stiles bit his lips, his eyes darting away from Derek's, and then nodded jerkily. "It's the best place. The only place. Of course, we still need to figure out how to _get_ them there." 

"I got Kali to follow me by shooting her with an arrow, and riding my elk too fast for her to catch me immediately," Derek said. "If I had an arrow—"

"You don't need an arrow." Stiles pointed to Allison. "She's already got one."

Yes. Stiles was right, and Allison was a better shot than Derek had ever been. 

"All right. Allison and Erica will lead Deucalion and the boars to the pond," Derek said.

Stiles turned to look Derek full on. "And us. You and I know the way better than Erica does."

"Then Kira and Boyd can stay here, and help get the people down to the lake," Derek finished. "Now all we've got to do is find Deucalion." 

A boar's screech echoed through the air, louder and deeper than any others Derek had heard. 

Stiles shuddered. "Something tells me that won't be so hard."

***

"Are you ready?" Derek called to Allison. 

She raised her bow in a silent salute, her other hand still tight in Erica's fur. Erica snarled, which Derek took to mean she was ready as well. 

"Promise not to run off this time?" Stiles asked quietly. 

Derek smiled with more confidence than he felt. "You'll be right beside me. I'll be fine." 

Stiles nodded sharply, though his face was paler than Derek had seen it before. "Let's go, then." 

For the first time since the full moon, Derek shed his clothes and shifted into a full wolf. He braced himself for the onslaught of scents and instincts, but it was more muted than it had been. Probably because Stiles was right there, twining his fingers in Derek's black fur and levering himself up onto his back, anchoring his mind in his body. 

Derek sniffed the air, seeking to separate Deucalion's scent from that of the other boars. He didn't recognize it, but he did recognize the peculiar tang of the curse, could smell how it wove through the battlefield before the gates and into the town. 

He huffed at Erica, who pawed at the ground and grinned. 

"Got it?" Stiles asked. 

Derek nodded and snapped his jaws. 

"Let's go!" Stiles shouted, raising his spear in the air. 

Derek and Erica took off through the front gates, Derek leading the way, following the scent of the curse. Now that he was into the town, he could smell how it wove with a boar's scent, similar to most of the others but still unique. Most likely Deucalion's. 

And sure enough, it led them toward the burning forge. 

Derek ran as fast as he could, being mindful of Stiles on his back and trying to keep them out of the worst of the fighting. The tenor of the battle had changed, though, from boars and humans fighting to the boars madly wrecking everything. They had to put a stop to this battle before the entire town was destroyed. 

They reached the forge in record time, and Derek skidded to a stop, Erica right beside him. It was _hot_ , heat blasting at them from the fire that covered the entire forge and was starting to spread to the town. His nostrils burned with the fire and smoke in the air, the embers singeing his fur. Derek backed away from the largest part of the fire, searching through the smoke, trying to spot Deucalion. 

"There!" Stiles yelled, pointing with his spear. 

Derek followed the line of it and spotted a giant white boar next to the burning forge, with the black tendrils of the bullet's curse writhing against his skin. 

"Allison?" Stiles called. 

She whipped an arrow out of her quiver and fitted it to her bow. "Got it!" 

In quick succession, Allison let fly two arrows. Both of them struck home, and Deucalion roared, turning his massive head toward them. Milky white eyes stared their way, and he took two steps in their direction. 

Stiles's legs squeezed Derek, a silent indication to be ready to run. "One more!" 

Before the words had faded from the air, Allison loosed another arrow, and this one struck Deucalion right in one of his blind eyes. 

The ensuing scream of rage was _deafening_. __

__"Shit," Stiles said.

Derek scrambled to change directions and took off for the main gates as fast as his legs would carry him. Stiles cursed again and grabbed onto his fur, pressing his body flat against Derek's as they ran. 

"He's coming _really_ fast, Derek, so if you could just—"

Derek growled and jumped across the threshold of the gate, claws tearing up the dirt as soon as he landed. Erica kept pace with him, with Allison clinging to her back and looking a little green. 

He wanted to ask how close Deucalion was, but then the great boar screamed again, close enough that Derek could feel the vibrations of it in his bones. 

_Very_ close, then. 

"The others are joining him!" Stiles shouted in his ear. "We're getting them, slowly." 

_Good_. Derek wasn't sure how many of the other boars had been cursed as well, but the fewer remaining at Irontown, the better. 

He raced down the winding road along the mountainside, skirting the lake and heading back toward the forest. It might be faster to swim through the lake, but their way was clear here, and Derek wanted to stay on a stretch without trees as long as he could. 

"Don't let the curse touch you!" Stiles called across the gap between Derek and Erica. 

"Don't worry!" Allison called back. 

"Psh, that old boar will have to lose several hundred years to catch up with me," Erica said. 

Derek wanted to snap at her heels, but Deucalion lunged forward then, snorting hot breath at their feet. 

Erica sprang ahead, beating Derek into the forest by a hair. 

He breathed a quick sigh of relief as soon as they were under the branches of the forest. They were smaller than the boars, could move quicker through the trees, and that meant they could put a little more distance between them and Deucalion. 

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than Derek heard the crash and crunch of breaking wood, and chanced a look behind him. 

Deucalion knocked down trees and underbrush, mowing through the forest as easily as he'd moved through the city. The black tendrils dripped off him with each step, flinging out across the forest and blackening everything they touched. 

They were going to destroy half the forest at this rate. 

Derek snapped his head back to the front of him and tried to run even faster, though it was harder with fallen logs and branches and rocks in his way. It felt like his feet weren't even touching the ground but to spring him into the next step, and his lungs burned with each breath. His heart pounded in his ears and his fear beat with it, but Derek shoved that emotion away. He didn't have time to be afraid, not with a tribe of boars as his heels and Stiles clinging to his back, trusting him to get them safely through the forest. 

Safely to the pond. 

Gods, Derek prayed the magic there was enough to stop this. It had been enough for the curse of one small human, but could it save an entire tribe of boars? 

_Yes_. It had to. He didn't have any time for doubt right now. 

The scent of the forest changed in a now-familiar way, and he heard Stiles call out, "We're almost there!" 

Derek broke through the trees into the flat expanse of grass by the pond, but didn't stop running. He plunged into the water with Stiles on top of him, swimming for the center island, the one where he'd awakened his first day in the forest. He heard Erica splash in beside him, heard Allison gasp in surprise. 

He didn't look back to see where the boars were. 

Derek clawed his way out of the water and onto the island, spitting out water and breathing heavily. They'd made it here, now they just had to hope it was enough. 

He expected Stiles to scramble off of him, but he didn't; instead, he lay flat against Derek once more, and Derek could feel his rabbiting heartbeat on his back. He wanted to shift back so he could take Stiles in his arms, tell him everything would be all right, but Derek didn't want to waste the precious seconds he might need to get Stiles out of there if this all went to shit. 

Besides, he wasn't sure he could keep that promise. 

Deucalion charged out of the forest and plunged into the water, followed by the rest of the boars. They swam straight for the center island, murder in their eyes. 

Stiles's grip on him tightened. "They're not slowing down. Derek, they're not slowing down." 

_I know_ , Derek thought, and started looking for the best exit. But he wasn't sure where they could go, and even though he had impressive stamina as a wolf, he was starting to tire from the length of the sprint he'd just endured. 

But Deucalion and the boars were getting closer, and damn it, Derek was going to keep Stiles safe no matter what it took. If they got to another island, they could make it to the opposite end of the pond and head back to the den. He could leave Stiles there, lead the boars back to the lake at Irontown and hope they dropped from exhaustion before he did. 

Derek was poised to dive back into the water, when Deucalion suddenly slowed and stopped, his blind eye focused on something just behind Derek and Stiles. The rest of the boars slowed as well, until all of them were treading water in the pond, all eyes fixed on the same point. 

Stiles's grip didn't loosen in the slightest. "What's happening?" 

The scent around the pond changed suddenly. The sharp, acrid tang of the curse faded, overwhelmed by the smell of flowers and grass and trees and _life_.

Derek turned and saw something walking up behind them, a great deer at least twice as large as Derek himself, with so many antlers he couldn't even begin to count them. With each step the deer took, flowers burst to life around its three-toed foot, and died just as quickly once the foot lifted. The sheer amount of _magic_ radiating from the animal had Derek taking a step away, bowing his head in respect and deference. 

"The great forest spirit," Stiles whispered, his voice more filled with awe than Derek had ever heard it.

"My gods." Allison's voice trembled. "Oh my gods, it wasn't a myth." 

The spirit walked right past them, walked on the water itself, and came to a stop before Deucalion and the boars. It said nothing, but slowly lowered its face to Deucalion's snout. 

The black tentacles on the boar froze in unison, and then gradually melted away, dripping into the water and dissipating. Deucalion's eye widened, he took a huge shuddering breath, and then his eye rolled back into his head and he sagged sideways in the water, exhaling one last time. 

Derek swore he heard the great boar's heart stop. 

Shimmery waves rippled out from Deucalion's body and over the other boars. Half of them died as well, while a handful of others shook their heads, as if waking from a dream, and swam back to the opposite shore and vanished into the forest. 

Stiles finally slid off Derek's back, keeping one arm looped around his neck. Derek didn't much _like_ Stiles being off his back, but the great forest spirit wasn't a danger, and the curse itself was gone. He forced himself to settle on the ground, next to Stiles, nudging his head close to the lower half of Stiles's body.

The great forest spirit turned to them and a smile split its face, and it walked slowly across the water to their island. Midway there, it changed, standing on its hind legs and shifting from a deer to a young woman, the same woman Derek had seen with his mother. 

And now, standing this close to her and to Stiles, he could see how he recognized her smile. 

Stiles's jaw dropped, and then he snapped it shut, and his fist clenched in Derek's fur so hard it was painful. "You...what...Mother?" he finally said, the last word so soft Derek didn't think anyone else could hear it.

She—the great forest spirit, Stiles's _mother_ —smiled sadly. "Stiles. You've grown up well." 

"How...how are you the _great forest spirit?_ " Stiles demanded. "That's—"

"Not impossible," she finished, and Derek could've sworn she was smirking. She spread her arms. "Magic was such a large part of my life, is it any wonder it became an integral part of my death?" 

Stiles's fingers dug into the back of Derek's neck, his mouth moving, but nothing coming out. One of the only times Derek had seen him speechless. 

Claudia folded her hands in front of her. "The magic of the forest has always existed. I just was able to give it...direction? Sentience? Something like that. I am limited in how far my influence extends, but in the forest," she looked back over her shoulder at the boars, "it is the power of life and death." 

She turned back to them. "I am sorry I left you without knowledge of your own power, but I couldn't give you any more—not with so much hate and bitterness in your heart. It would have poisoned you. But now..." 

She lifted her hand and brushed it across Stiles's forehead. A soft golden glow suffused him, smelling strongly of _magic_ and _life_ and _pack_ and _green_ , so green Derek didn't have words for it. Stiles clung even more tightly to Derek, if that were possible, and then the light and the scent faded, and Claudia stepped away from them. 

"I can only give you so much knowledge," she said. "But that should be enough to help you start learning your magic." 

She turned her focus to Derek, and the next thing he knew, he was human again, standing on two feet beside Stiles and completely naked. 

"I told you you'd learn who I was," Claudia said with a smirk.

Derek wasn't sure if it was good form to glare at a forest spirit, but he did anyway.

Her reaction was much the same as Stiles's; she laughed. "Good. I like you." She looked between them, and her eyes softened. "Take care of each other."

"Wait." Stiles reached out. "Why haven't you come before? Why did you—"

He didn't finish the sentence, but Derek knew, somehow, how it would end. He took Stiles's hand in his and held it tight.

"I can't take this form very often," she said softly. "Not in this world. But I never left you, Stiles. Not once. Why do you think you felt so at home here?"

Stiles's heartbeat kept climbing, thudding as rapidly now as it had been during their chase with the boars, and his beautiful face twisted in indecision.

Claudia seemed to understand. She bowed slightly to them and backed away. "Take care of each other," she said, though her voice sounded much thinner than before. "And take care of the forest. Though I have a feeling I leave it in good hands."

Derek bowed in return. "Always, great spirit of the forest."

Claudia laughed, and her body began to change back into the deer. "So formal. You have chosen wisely, son."

Stiles took an aborted step forward, but he didn't relinquish his hold on Derek's hand. "No, don't..."

But the change didn't stop. "Time is up," she said with a mouth that was part human and part deer. "I love you."

And then the giant many-antlered deer stood before them once again.

Stiles's lip trembled, but he held out his hand, and the great forest spirit nosed at it before walking back across the water and disappearing into the forest. The pond was silent once more, but for the tentative sound of birds and bugs and kodamas emerging from their trees.

Derek stayed where he was, not entirely sure what had just happened. He was reasonably sure Stiles's mother had just appeared as the great forest spirit and destroyed both the curse of the bullets and the boars, but he was also concerned that had been a hallucination of some kind, and they were all about to die.

Then Stiles turned to him, tears making tracks through the blood and grime on his face, and whispered, "She showed me how to heal the forest."

Not a hallucination, then. Derek clasped Stiles's other hand. "Heal the forest?"

"Where the boars came through."

Derek looked over his shoulder, where the forest was still black and broken from where their chase had come. "You can bring it back?"

Stiles nodded. "I..." He extricated both his hands from Derek's. "I know you want to come, but..."

Derek shook his head, stepped away. "I understand. Go on, then."

Stiles smiled shakily, and then he waded into the pond and swam back across. Derek watched only to make sure he made the other side, and then turned away. If Stiles wanted that power to be something he shared only with him and his mother, then Derek wasn't going to be the one to spy on that bond. 

"Derek," Allison said from behind him. 

He turned, a little surprised. He'd completely forgotten Allison and Erica were there, but they stood there, Allison with one hand on Erica's head and both of them looking less shaken than Derek would have expected. 

Allison took a step forward and bowed. "As the acting leader of Irontown, I would like to formally request a truce with the wolf tribe of the forest, and proceed with the alliance negotiations we have been undertaking for the past several days." 

Derek exhaled slowly, felt staggered under the sudden weight of responsibility. He glanced at Erica, looking for some kind of confirmation, but she only lay down on the island and rested her head on her forepaws, staring vacantly across the pond. 

_Right_. Derek turned his attention back to Allison, and bowed in return. "I accept your truce, Lady Allison, and agree to further negotiations." With another look at Erica, he added, "After an appropriate mourning period on both our parts, of course."

Allison nodded, her lips pressed together in a small, sad smile. "Of course."


	16. Chapter 16

Derek stood near the base of the burning pyre, Stiles on his right, and Erica and Boyd on his left. Kira and her parents had come at sunset, when Derek had first lit it, but now that the fire was burning down, they had left, Kira casting a sad, sympathetic look at them before she did.

None of them had been entirely sure what to do with Satomi's body, as the wolves had no funeral rites. Thus, Derek substituted the rites of his own village, modified for the forest. He didn't have any incense or fragrant oils, and her body was far too large for them to move easily, let alone wash four times as the rites required. 

But, between the four of them, they'd managed to build a pyre, and Derek and Stiles had washed the worst of the dirt and blood from her body. Instead of oils, he'd used flowers, picking new ones three times a day and setting them in a circle around Satomi once they'd put her on the pyre. Sometimes Stiles helped as well, other times Erica and Boyd did, but it had only been once that they'd all placed flowers together. Most of the time, Erica and Boyd and Stiles huddled together, sharing their silent grief. 

Derek left them to it. He went about the preparations, even as every step reminded him of Laura and Cora, and how they had done this for their own parents. He wouldn't break. He could be strong for the rest of them. 

"Why do you light the pyre?" Stiles had asked at sunset the second day.

Derek had plucked at the grass and leaned against the tree, staring up at the darkening sky through the branches above. "Because we believe that burning the body sets the spirit free to return to the spirit world, and the ash returns to the earth to help other things grow. It returns us to nature, makes us one with the world once more."

He half-expected Stiles to scoff, or possibly to argue, but he didn't. Instead, he frowned at the grass and said nothing for a long moment. 

"It's not really about them, is it? It's about you, and making yourself feel better." Stiles put a fist to his heart. "Trying to make it stop feeling like there's a hole here." 

Derek cleared his throat. He ached to take Stiles into his arms and comfort him, but Stiles had been pulling away, withdrawing, and Derek didn't want to push. Not right now. "It is," Derek admitted. "It doesn't make the hole go away—I don't think the hole ever really goes away—but it can help. It helped me." 

Stiles looked up at him, frowning again, but this time in confusion. "Helped you?" 

"Preparing my parents for their pyre," Derek said softly. "With my sisters. We grieved together. It still hurt, but..." He shrugged. "It helped."

Once again, the quiet stretched between them before Stiles spoke again. "When do we light it?" 

"Sunset on the third day," Derek said. 

Stiles had only nodded then, and gone off again, presumably to find Erica and Boyd. 

Now they stood before the pyre, watching the last of the flames lick up in the darkness of the nighttime forest. 

Derek felt like something should be said, like he should have _words_ , but words didn't seem to encompass this feeling. 

Beside him, Boyd tipped back his head and howled. 

Before the echo of it had faded from the air, Erica howled too, her voice mixing with Boyd's, and _this_ , this was what Derek had been missing. 

He threw back his head and let his own voice join with theirs, and with Stiles's, a cacophony in the night, all of them howling the grief they couldn't share any other way.

***

"Come with me." 

Derek looked at Stiles's outstretched hand in surprise. With the pyre finally burned out, Boyd and Erica had already gone back to the den, and he'd thought Stiles would be right behind them, but...

Stiles gestured with his head back into the forest, his face uncharacteristically solemn. "Please?" 

Derek nodded and took Stiles's hand. _Of course I will. I'd follow you wherever you wanted to lead me._

It didn't take him long to realize where Stiles was leading him. Derek didn't stop moving, but he did squeeze Stiles's hand a little tighter. "Are you sure?" 

Stiles squeezed back, but said nothing. Derek took it as confirmation. 

Fireflies flitted along their path, and a few kodamas appeared and followed them for a few minutes before fading away, but overall the forest remained quiet, as if the very place itself were still grieving. 

It wasn't long before they reached the pond, peaceful and calm in the center of the forest. The bodies of the boars had long since disappeared—Derek had decided not to ask too many questions about that—and the magic felt as though it had cleansed itself. The air was still heavy, weighted, but it seemed to be _more_ than the magic now, as though something else was going on.

Stiles let go of his hand and went to the base of a tree, where Derek saw he'd spread out a blanket, one that Lydia had brought during one of their many trips into the forest. On the corner of it sat the jar of oil Derek had won in the wager with Allison. The memory of that day felt bittersweet now. 

Stiles picked up the oil, held it tight in his hands. "I want you to mate me," he said, so fast and quiet Derek almost didn't catch it, even with his hearing. 

He stepped closer, so he could better hear over Stiles's thundering heartbeat. "You what?" 

Stiles held out the oil. "You. I want you to _mate_ me. I know...we've mated, but I know there's more, and—" He cut himself off, his cheeks flushing red. 

_Oh_. The realization hit him like a stone to the head. Derek rushed to him, taking Stiles's hands in his. "I...is that what you want? Truly? Because yes. I would...I would love to." 

_I love you_.

Stiles smiled with trembling lips. "I think I would like it very much." 

"All right, then." Derek took another step closer, moving slower than he wanted, giving Stiles time to back away if he wanted to. But Stiles didn't move, just tipped his head up slightly, and Derek took the invitation to finally, _finally_ kiss him again for the first time in more than three days.

It felt like coming home again, to breathe in and have it smell like nothing but _Stiles_ , a scent Derek had been chasing on some level ever since the first day they'd met. He traced his tongue over Stiles's lips, nipped at them, kissed deeper when he was welcomed inside his mouth. They weren't usually like this, soft and slow; it had always been hard and fast and _instinctive_ , but Derek didn't want this to be just mating. 

He wanted to take his time. He wanted to make love, to indulge and savor in this timeless world where nothing existed but the two of them, to remind himself of how alive they both were.

"Let's bathe," he whispered against Stiles's lips. 

"Bathe?" Stiles repeated, sounding dazed. 

"Bathe." Derek kissed along his jaw, making sure to pay attention to each mole there. "Together. I want to see you." 

Stiles nodded, his breath hot and shaky against Derek's cheek. "All right. Bathing." 

They undressed each other with trembling hands, Derek sliding Stiles's cape to the ground, Stiles staring blatantly at Derek as he pulled off his pants. Within moments, they were both completely naked, and for the first time, Derek could watch Stiles and drink his fill. 

No matter how many times they'd "mated" before, they'd never undressed all the way, and Derek regretted it now because Stiles was _breathtaking_ , long and lean and pale, a thin strip of dark hair in the middle of his chest and another one running between his belly button and his cock, hanging soft between his legs. Derek ached to touch, to run his tongue over every dip and curve of muscle until he had memorized how Stiles tasted over every inch of his body. 

Stiles's shoulders hunched, and he made an ineffectual attempt at covering himself. "Stop looking at me like that." 

Derek took a step closer so he could run his fingers along Stiles's arms, over the goosebumps springing up in the cool night air. "Like what?" 

"Like you're looking at the night sky." 

Derek leaned closer so he could press a kiss to Stiles's temple, shivered at the heat of Stiles's body all along his. He had never been one for poetry, but now, he wished he had more words, better ones to share, because right now his vocabulary felt woefully inadequate. 

"You're beautiful," he finally said, because it may not have been articulate, but it was true. 

Even in the dark, he could see how Stiles's cheeks pinked at the words. 

Derek tugged him into the pond, still warmed from the summer's heat, the water rippling gently with their movements. The moon's reflection wavered on the dark surface, and more fireflies darted overhead, blinking in and out of existence. The bright scent of life and the cool smell of the water hung so heavily in the air Derek could taste it on his tongue. 

And there was Stiles, waist-deep in the water, skin so pale it seemed to glow in the moonlight. Derek wanted to freeze this moment, every single bit of it, and make so sharp he'd never see it dulled with time. He didn't want to forget an instant of it, not ever, and the knowledge made his heart clench. 

He cupped his hands in the water and poured it over Stiles's chest, following the trails of the water with his hands, relishing in the contact as he memorized Stiles's skin. There were moles he'd never seen before, scars that were nearly faded, others that were newer. Gods above, Derek wanted to touch him _forever_.

"Are you the only one allowed to touch?" Stiles asked, voice a little breathless. 

Derek swallowed and shook his head. "If you...please." 

Stiles reached out and dragged his fingers down Derek's chest, tugging at the hair there as he did, sending warm tingles all the way down Derek's spine. Derek stayed still, letting him explore, biting his tongue against the moans threatening to come out of his mouth with those long, deft fingers skating across his skin. 

Stiles scooped up a handful of water and sprinkled it down Derek's shoulder. A few droplets ran over his collarbone, and Stiles chased them with his tongue, licking his way over to the hollow of Derek's throat and biting gently. 

The heat of it went straight to Derek's cock, and he did moan, then. 

Stiles pulled back, a wicked gleam in his amber eyes. "Did you like that?" 

Derek growled and hauled him back in for a kiss, chasing the cool sweetness of the water on Stiles's tongue. The contrast with the heat of Stiles's mouth drove him wild, and Derek skimmed his hands down Stiles's back to the curve of his ass. 

Stiles gasped into his mouth and Derek swallowed it down, hands following that tantalizing curve down to his thighs and then back up, and Derek spread his cheeks so that he could brush his fingers along the pucker of Stiles's hole. 

Fingers dug into Derek's shoulders and Stiles cursed, his hips bucking. "Gods, Derek." 

Derek anchored one hand on Stiles's hip, rubbing lightly at the bone there, and pressed his fingers more firmly against his hole. Stiles _whined_ and shoved his face into Derek's neck. 

"Have you ever touched yourself here?" Derek asked, rolling his fingers gently from side to side.

Stiles shook his head and let out another whimper. 

"Is this all right?"

Stiles nodded, and a shudder wracked his body. "I want...Derek, I want more, I want—"

The scent of arousal hit Derek's nose then, driving straight to the most primal part of him, and he felt his fangs prick at his lips. He buried his face in Stiles's shoulder, trying to keep himself together, but it was so hard when every breath held Stiles's scent, calling to him, drawing on his desire to mark and mate and _claim_ , to make him and Stiles so indelibly linked everyone around them would know. 

He dragged water over Stiles's sides and back and ass, washing him thoroughly, hiding his smile in Stiles's shoulder when he felt those long fingers skim over his own skin. This was perfect, this moment; they weren't even kissing, not doing anything but touching, but Derek wanted to stay here forever. 

That was, until Stiles's hips undulated and his hardening cock brushed against Derek's thigh. 

Derek hissed and his own hips jerked forward in response. He wanted to be inside Stiles, _now_ , and they needed preparation to make that happen. 

"Are you ready?" 

Stiles dug his fingers into Derek's ass, yanking him forward so that he could feel the full length of Stiles's cock pressed flush along his belly. "What do you think?" 

Derek groaned. "I think we need to get the oil." 

Stiles practically dragged him out of the pond and back over to the blanket, and shoved the jar of oil into Derek's hands. He flopped onto the blanket, pillowing his face on his arms and wiggling his ass. "Hurry," he said over his shoulder. 

Derek bared his teeth, even though Stiles couldn't see. They'd always rushed, always hurried. Derek wanted to take his time. 

"Turn over," he said.

Stiles peered over his shoulder with a frown. "Why?"

Derek unscrewed the jar of oil and dipped his fingers in. "You'll see. I promise."

Stiles's eyes narrowed, but he still rolled over onto his back. Derek set the oil out of the way and crawled between his legs, spreading them a little further. Stiles's breath hitched and his heartbeat tripped, but he didn't smell frightened, only excited. 

Derek pressed his slick fingers to Stiles's hole, rubbing a circle around it before slipping the tip of one inside. Stiles gasped harshly and his ass clenched. 

Derek stopped where he was. "Did it hurt?" 

"No," Stiles said through gritted teeth. "No, I'm fine, keep—"

Even with his heartbeat bouncing all over the place, Derek could hear the lie. He wasn't going to continue if this was _hurting_ Stiles. He withdrew his finger. 

Stiles craned his head up. "No, what are you doing? Why are you stopping?" 

Derek lunged up his body to kiss the worry out of his voice. "It's hurting. You need to relax."

"I am relaxed," Stiles protested. "I am completely relaxed!" 

Derek rolled his eyes and settled back between Stiles's legs, lowering his mouth to just a scant inch above Stiles's red cock, lying half-hard against his pale stomach. 

Well, he was going to have to fix that. 

"What are you—" Stiles started to ask. 

Derek licked along the side of his cock, tracing a vein with his tongue. 

" _Hngng_ ," Stiles said. 

Derek decided to take that as encouragement to keep going. 

He wrapped his lips around the head of Stiles's cock and sucked gently, listening to the incoherent noises Stiles made as he did. Derek hummed and took him deeper into his mouth, lips sliding over the shaft, rubbing at the foreskin with his tongue. Stiles moaned, making little bitten-off cries, hips jerking up just slightly, like he wanted to thrust into Derek's mouth but had to hold himself back. 

Derek half-closed his eyes and breathed through his nose, relishing how _thick_ Stiles's scent was here, the weight of the cock in his mouth, and then pressed his oil-slick fingers to Stiles's hole once again. This time, after a brief clench, Stiles's muscles relaxed and Derek's finger slipped fully into the heat of his body. 

Stiles let out a stream of curses, ending with " _Derek!_ "

Derek stopped sucking his cock long enough to respond. "Is that all right?"

"Stop and I'll kill you," Stiles said breathlessly. "I've a knife, I can—"

"Can't have that," Derek murmured, and sealed his mouth over Stiles's cock once more. 

He licked his way up and down the shaft, twisting and crooking his finger in the tight heat of Stiles's ass until Stiles was writhing against him, whining and cursing. He pulled his finger out, but it was only to press two back in, as slowly as he could. Stiles let out the most garbled noise Derek had ever heard and grabbed onto Derek's hair. He grunted.

Stiles let go. "Sorry. Sorry, I—"

Derek stopped what he was doing long enough to tug Stiles's hand back to his hair. "Pull as much as you want." 

Stiles's eyes went wide, but he carded his hand through Derek's hair, scratching behind his ears. Derek closed his eyes and pushed into Stiles's hand before going back to what he was doing.

Stiles's cock was fully hard now, flushed dark red with blood and leaking steadily from the tip. Derek lapped at it, swallowing the salty tang, kissed and sucked along Stiles's hips until he left marks, small red ones that would bruise beautifully, mark Stiles as _his_. 

He only wished he could be as marked in return. 

His own cock throbbed more with every breath, begging for attention, but Derek didn't dare touch himself, not if he wanted to mate Stiles at all. He put all his focus on Stiles's cock and ass, scissoring his fingers and twisting them, looking for the spot that he knew had to be there, the one that had made him see stars the first time he'd found it in his own ass. 

He rolled his fingers and Stiles arched up off the blanket, mouth open in a choked-off cry. 

Derek couldn't keep the smile off his face. "Good?" 

Stiles slapped weakly at his shoulder. "Yes, _good_ , now come on, please, mate me, I'm ready, I'm—"

Derek closed his eyes this time so he wouldn't roll them. "I'm not putting my cock in you until you can take three fingers, and right now," he wiggled them for emphasis, "there's only two." 

Stiles glared at him, but it didn't have the same effect when he had such a high blush on his cheeks and looked so thoroughly debauched. "Then put a third in, for the love of the _gods_ , you're driving me to madness like this." 

"As you wish," Derek said, and did. 

He did so _slowly_ , laving at Stiles's cock as he did, watching for any sign of pain. Stiles's face twisted at first, but only a little, and within moments, he was rocking back onto Derek's fingers, a steady stream of pleas falling from his lips. 

There was only so much Derek could hear before he pulled his fingers out and fumbled for the oil again, slicking it over his cock as fast as he was able. He gripped himself by the base and took a few deep breaths, hoping that this wouldn't be over as soon as he was inside Stiles. 

A heel dug into his leg. "Get _on_ with it," Stiles groused. "I want you in me, I want you in—"

Derek set the head of his cock against Stiles's hole and pushed into the tight, slick warmth. "Impatient," he gasped out. 

Stiles canted his hips up, forcing Derek deeper, and he nearly bit through his tongue at how good it felt. Every inch he sank in, he was more certain that he wouldn't last nearly long enough to make this good for Stiles. 

By the gods, he was going to try, though. 

After an eternity and in the blink of an eye, he was buried to the hilt in Stiles's ass, his mind scrambled and scattered with every clench of muscle around him, which he felt all the way from his scalp to his toes, vibrating over every inch of his skin. Opening his eyes didn't help, with Stiles was spread out before him, pretty mouth swollen and parted, leaking cock jutting up from his body, and his eyes dark with desire. 

Derek leaned over, placing his hands beside Stiles's chest, and lowering himself until he could nip at his lips. 

Stiles tangled his fingers in Derek's hair and kissed him, deep and filthy, and rolled his hips in such a way that Derek's vision blurred. 

" _Move_ ," Stiles ordered, and bit Derek's neck. 

It snapped something inside him, and Derek thrust forward, slow at first, but faster when Stiles's response was to roll up his hips to meet each thrust, to whisper breathy pleas against Derek's skin. 

He dropped his head to Stiles's neck and inhaled deeply, shuddering at the pleasure of the scent of sweat and arousal and sex, so thick it was like he could lick it straight off Stiles's skin. He just breathed there, sucking a mark on his neck as he felt himself surrounded by _Stiles_ , by scent and taste and sound and heat, by the slickness of their bodies sliding against each other, by Stiles's fingers scratching lines down his back. 

It was perfect, like everything he'd never known he needed, and he was loath for it to end. 

But already he could feel his orgasm building, not quite there but close, so close. Derek slowed his pace and finally lifted his head from Stiles's neck, but only to kiss him, to share his breath, to swallow the sweet cries he made every time Derek sank fully inside him. He was still going to come far too soon for his liking, but the slower pace bought him a precious few extra seconds of this. 

"Derek," Stiles said against his lips, but his voice broke on the word. 

"Going to come," Derek whispered.

"Do it," Stiles urged. "Do it, please, please, please, Derek..." 

Derek cut him off with another kiss and thrust harder, not holding back this time. His orgasm crashed over him like a wave, making his hips stutter as he spilled himself, gasping out Stiles's name like it was a prayer. 

He shuddered with another wave of pleasure, and just barely had the presence of mind to reach between them and wrap his hand around Stiles's cock. He stroked it twice and Stiles came with a shout, white ropes of come shooting between them.

Derek collapsed, slightly to one side to keep the bulk of his weight off Stiles, and dragged his fingers through the mess on Stiles's chest. It smelled _good_ , and Stiles smelled like them, and without thinking, Derek spread the come on his own chest and rubbed it in. 

Perhaps Stiles couldn't mark him physically, but he could be marked by this. 

Stiles watched him with eyelids half-open, fluttering like he was having trouble keeping himself awake. "Is that a human thing?" 

Derek shook his head, somehow managed to get his shaky body close enough to kiss Stiles again. "Mate. Yours." He pressed his thumb against the mark on Stiles's neck. "Mine." 

Stiles caught his hand, pulled it away. Derek started to ask why when he noticed the tears in Stiles's eyes. 

_What?_

"Get off," Stiles said, voice quavering. "Get off, get off, get _off_."

Suddenly cold, his afterglow vanishing into something sicker, Derek pulled out and rolled to the side. Stiles sat up and drew his knees into his chest, a faint wince crossing his features, and wrapped his arms around his knees. "You don't have to stay." 

Derek had absolutely no idea what he meant, no idea where this was coming from. His chest felt hollow. "Do...do you not want me to?"

Stiles wiped fiercely at his eyes. "I mean your curse is gone. You can live outside the forest. You aren't stuck here anymore. You aren't stuck with me because—"

Derek lunged over to cup Stiles's face. "You...you think I did this because I was _stuck_ with you?" 

Tears dangled from his lashes, and Stiles closed his eyes and looked away. "You can choose—"

"I already chose." Derek exhaled shakily and rested his forehead against Stiles's, the fear and dread now fading into relief and something more. "I would never have done any of this if I hadn't already chosen you. I want to stay. Stiles." He pulled back, but Stiles kept his face firmly turned away. "Look at me." 

Stiles sniffled, and then opened his beautiful amber eyes and met Derek's. 

Gods, it still took his breath away. Derek rubbed his thumb over Stiles's cheek, wiping away the tears. "I love you. I want to stay with you. I love _you_." 

Stiles bit his lip and nodded, and then dove forward, crashing his lips into Derek's and twining his arms around his neck. The momentum took them both to the blanket, and Derek maneuvered them so Stiles was laying on top of him, adjusted the angle of the kiss give Stiles better access to his mouth. 

"I love you, too," Stiles finally murmured. 

"Good," Derek said, and reeled him back down for another kiss.

He had no intention of letting go anytime soon.


	17. Chapter 17

_Several months later_

 

"I don't see why I have to go," Stiles groused. 

"Because it's part of our agreement with the humans that we help them rebuild," Derek said. "Besides, it's been two weeks since you last saw Deaton, and you need to keep up your training." 

Stiles made a face, but he didn't dispute the statement. 

"Then why do _we_ have to go?" Erica asked. "Boyd and I can't exactly help build." 

"Because our agreement also states that we will help provide protection to the humans, in exchange for them no longer manufacturing the iron bullets," Derek said. "And also because Allison asked for you to." 

Erica stuck her tongue out at him, but nipped at his arm in solidarity. 

"How about you?" he asked Boyd. 

He narrowed his eyes at the town ahead. "As long as _she_ isn't there, I'll be fine." 

"She won't be," Derek assured him. 

No, that was the one element of the agreement that couldn't be disputed. Lady Victoria had issued an apology for her role in Satomi's death and for Derek's injury, but none of them were quite ready to forgive her just yet. Allison had been disappointed when Derek had relayed that message, but she'd understood. 

The past few months had been difficult, to say the least. Derek had continued to meet with Allison and Lydia (with Scott in attendance more for social reasons than actual protective ones) regarding the agreement between the forest and Irontown, but Stiles, Erica, and Boyd had not. Derek was reasonably sure Stiles had been there, hiding in the forest and watching should Derek need protection, but other than that, he had been the only representative. 

They'd started coming again after the worst of the grief had faded, almost two months after the battle with the boars. Boyd had come first, then Erica, and then finally Stiles. Scott had been so excited to see him, he'd practically knocked him flat with the force of his hug. Derek had no idea how Stiles hadn't skewered him with a spear. 

The three of them hadn't come every time, and usually didn't come together if they did. Derek missed the camaraderie of their early meetings and the grudging trust they'd built, but he also understood it was impossible to go back to that after everything that had happened. He was just happy they'd come at all. 

However, he and Allison had finally reached an agreement, signed and sealed, and while it was still new and fragile, there was also a sense of peace between the forest and Irontown that Derek had never seen. In fact, a few weeks before, Allison had privately told him she hadn't seen it like this since before her father died. 

That made him feel like they were close to the right path, then. 

Derek caught Stiles's hand and threaded their fingers together, relishing in the warmth of their palms touching. Stiles clung to his hand like it was a lifeline, that and his scent belying his otherwise unaffected stance. 

They walked along the road to Irontown, where the giant forge now sat silent. The mountainsides, once scarred from the dead trees and the mining, were now green with crops filling out the terraced gardens Allison had had her people build. The massive wooden wall had been partially repaired from where the boars had ripped a hole in it, but colorful flags flew from the top of the wall and the great front gate stood wide open. 

It was almost strange to be approaching the town in broad daylight on the road, instead of swimming across the lake in secret in order to sneak in. 

People were already walking among the crops, harvesting rice and vegetables. From what Allison had said, it had been difficult at first to get people used to farming instead of mining, but from what Derek could see and hear, they'd taken to it admirably. 

He wished Satomi and Claudia could be here to see it, but then again, he felt equally certain that they already had, from wherever they were now. 

"Erica! Boyd!" 

" _Stiles!_ "

Derek looked up to see Kira bounding toward them, with Allison and Scott on her back. She skidded to a stop when she got close, and Scott tumbled off, all but falling over himself to give Stiles a hug. Stiles stiffened just a hair, as he usually did when people who were not Derek hugged him, before dropping Derek's hand to hug Scott back. 

As always, the sight made Derek smile. Lately he'd noticed Stiles excepting Scott from his anger when he grumbled about humans. It was good to see he wasn't the only one building friendships outside the pack. 

Allison slid off Kira's back as well and bowed to each of them in turn. "I'm so glad all of you could make it. I've missed seeing you at meetings." 

Kira wiggled her tails and greeted both Boyd and Erica by nipping lightly at their necks. "Mother and Father and I are running the perimeter of the fields. So far we've frightened off three samurai. Are you going to come with us?" 

"Of course!" Erica said excitedly, and the three of them took off up the mountainside. 

Good. He was fairly sure most of the people here would be about as comfortable around Erica and Boyd as they would be around humans. This way, the humans got to see them doing some good, and Boyd and Erica got to spent time with the foxes. 

Derek shaded his eyes and searched for Ken and Noshiko, and raised his hand in greeting when he spotted them further up the mountain. Unsurprisingly, only one of them acknowledged him. He wasn't entirely sure Noshiko had forgiven him for his own role in Satomi's death, no matter how accidental it was. 

"So, Derek," Allison said slyly. 

He lowered his gaze from the foxes and raised his eyebrows at her. That tone could only mean something very good or something very _bad_. 

"That item you requested at one of our past meetings. It's finished and ready for you to look over." 

Oh, _that_. Derek grinned, despite the blush he could feel on his face. "Is now a good time?" 

Her smile was downright devious. She'd clearly been spending far too much time with Lydia. "It's ready whenever you are." 

"Good." Derek touched Stiles's elbow. "If you can tear yourself from Scott for a few minutes, I've something to show you." 

Stiles blushed and pulled back, but from his small smile he recognized that Derek was teasing and not truly angry. "What is it?" 

"Oh!" Scott's dark eyes doubled in size. "Wait until you see it. It's _amazing_."

Allison covered her smile with one hand. "Come on. I'll take you." 

She led the way into the city, Scott and Stiles right behind her, and Derek behind them. Scott was talking about how he'd taught the other guards some of the spear techniques Stiles had showed him, and Stiles was making faces about it. 

It was a good walk, all in all. 

Allison showed them the way to a small house, and swept her arm toward the door. "Your gift is inside." 

Stiles looked skeptical, and Scott looked as though he were about to burst out of his skin with glee. 

Derek took Stiles's arm and opened the latch on the door, very pointedly shutting it once they were inside. He would have to thank Allison later, but this...he wanted this to be just between him and Stiles. He just hoped Stiles liked it. 

"It's..." Stiles trailed off. 

"A bed," Derek finished. 

A large bed, the wooden headboard carved with wolves and the three spirals of the triskele, the symbol of Derek's family. 

"We, um." He rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly feeling shy and a little embarrassed. "In our village, when two people marry, their family gives them the gift of a bed. The idea is to wish them a happy marriage with many children." He coughed; that didn't _really_ apply here. "But they also carve the headboard with symbols meaningful to the couple, which will bless the marriage." 

Stiles still stared at the bed, mouth half-open, his usually expressive face utterly inscrutable. "Marriage?" he repeated faintly. 

Oh hell. Derek was mucking this up. "Usually, when humans find someone they want to spend their life with, they propose marriage. And I—"

"I know what marriage is." Stiles's voice was shaking. "I wasn't _that_ young when I came to live with the wolves. I just...this...you want this? With me?"

Derek's heart threatened to beat out of his chest. He stepped closer to Stiles so he could touch, rest his hands on Stiles's arms. "Yes," he said. "I want you every way you'll have me." 

He had only the uptick in Stiles's heartbeat as a warning before Stiles threw his arms around him. Derek caught him with an _oof_ and stumbled back to the bed. The backs of his knees hit the side and then he fell onto the mattress, taking Stiles with him. 

Stiles's mouth was on his a split-second later, hot and frantic. Derek skimmed his hands up Stiles's sides and kissed back, holding him close and letting Stiles just take. 

"How long do we have before we need to be out there, helping?" Stiles asked between kisses. 

Derek hummed. "Sadly, not long. But," he nipped at Stiles's lower lip, "we'll have all night tonight." 

"All night." Stiles grinned wickedly and rolled his hips right over Derek's. "However will we spend the time?" 

Derek matched his grin and pulled him back in for another kiss. "Oh, I can think of a few ways."

He was getting lost again in Stiles's mouth, Stiles's scent, when someone rapped sharply on the door, interrupting them. 

Stiles groaned. "Ignore them." 

"Derek?" Allison's voice called, muffled through the door. "There's a...Laura here asking for you?" 

_Laura_. Derek froze, almost certain his ears had deceived him. It wasn't possible...was it?

Stiles frowned. "Who's Laura?" 

A sudden lump constricted his throat, and Derek had to clear it a few times before he could speak. "Laura's my sister. And I...I would really like for you two to meet." 

Stiles gave him a shy, hopeful smile. "Really?"

Derek nuzzled at his neck. "Really."

***

Introducing Stiles to his sisters went better than he could've hoped. Laura and Cora both _adored_ him, and while Stiles was stiff at first, he warmed to them quickly. Derek wished he could've been more help, but he was so overwhelmed to see his sisters, to actually _smell_ them for the first time, a scent at once both familiar and new, that he was good for little else but hugging them both and burrowing his face into their necks. 

Laura carded her hand through his hair. "Missed you too," she said, her voice thick with unshed tears. 

Derek fought back his own tears. "How did you even..."

"They were archaic laws, brother," Laura said. "And I wasn't giving you up for them."

He could say nothing else over the lump in his throat, so he simply squeezed her closer.

After their reunion, they followed Allison out to the field, and worked the rows side by side. With Laura and Cora on one side of him and Stiles on the other, calling back and forth to each other, and Boyd and Erica running by occasionally to check on them, Derek didn't think he'd ever been so happy. 

It was hard, sweaty work, but as the sun lowered over the western mountains, all Derek felt was the satisfaction of a job well done. 

They were staying that night in Irontown to continue their work in the morning, and Allison hosted a huge bonfire and banquet for the entire town. There was dancing and singing and eating, a joyful chaos filling the streets. 

Derek stood with a drink in his hand, just watching his friends and family around the fire. Erica and Kira had curled up around each other and were sound asleep, amazing considering the noise surrounding them. Boyd was talking with Allison and Scott. Beside them, Cora and Lydia were poring over papers together, blueprints of some sort from the look of it. Stiles and Laura had bonded, and over the noise of the music and the fire, Derek could hear snippets of the story about the time he'd accidentally let all the red elks in the village out of their pen. 

She'd probably tell all of his embarrassing childhood stories before the night was out. Derek found that he didn't mind too much.

"Are you Derek Hale of the wolves?" 

He turned to the owner of the voice, an older man with sandy blond hair and blue eyes, who was only a bit taller than Derek himself. 

"Yes?" Derek said. "And you are?" 

The man held out his hand, and Derek shook it. "John Stilinski. So you're the one who helped to make peace between the humans and the forest." 

Derek snorted. "Lady Allison had a great deal to do with it." 

John's mouth twisted into a sad smile. "That's good. That's...it's a good thing. I wish my wife could've seen it. She always believed they could find peace," he said softly. "Even though it wouldn't be easy."

"Was your wife from Irontown?" Derek asked.

John shook his head. "No, we lived in a village to the south. She was a mediator, a nature witch. Spent most of her adult life trying to make peace between the forest and Irontown." He paused and pressed his mouth into a thin line, as though he were trying to compose himself. "It was a cause she died for."

Derek stared. He couldn't help but stare, because...was it just a coincidence? No. It couldn't be. His heart leapt into his throat. "Forgive me if this is too forward, but by any chance, was your wife's name Claudia?"

John's smile turned wistful. "Yes."

"And," Derek swallowed hard, "did you have a son?"

John frowned, and his demeanor went from wistful to suspicious. "And just how do you know that?"

Derek gestured across the fire, where Stiles sat next to Laura, his head thrown back in a laugh. Tonight would be the night of many meetings, it seemed. 

He turned back to John with a smile. "Come with me. There's someone I think you should meet."

~THE END~

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr!](http://mad-madam-m.tumblr.com) [Twitter!](http://twitter.com/mad_madam_m)
> 
> The character death is Satomi.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!


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